Untitled Sports Blog: May 2015

Friday, May 29, 2015

New American Frontier - Baseball Regionals

Day one of regionals is in the books. Four AAC teams made the baseball dance. Houston, South Florida, East Carolina and Tulane carried the American banner.

So how did our teams fare?

For reference, Houston, the regular season champs, hosts the Houston regional. #1 Houston opened up against #4 Houston Baptist. The Coogs fell down early 4-0 but rallied for a 6-4 win. UH will face Louisiana-Lafayette in the winners bracket game 2. Some insignificant team named rice blew a big lead to UL-Lafayette.

In the Coral Gables Regional, East Carolina, the AAC Tournament Champ and #2 seed, was upended by #3 seed Columbia. ECU will face FIU in an elimination game.

In the Gaineville Regional, USF beat Florida Atlantic 5-3 and set up a showdown with #1 seed Florida. Florida defeated Florida A&M 19-0. USF has it's work cut for it but they are American and will pull it off.

As of this writing, it's not looking so good for Tulane in the Baton Rouge Regional. The Green Wave trail UNC-W 9-1 in the 6th.

D1baseball.com, a favorite of mine, chimes in on both UH and UL-La's win in Dispatches from Houston.

Late Update: Tulane falls 10-1...ugh

Thursday, May 28, 2015

New American Frontier - Links Covering the AAC

Been a busy week at work and mix in the holiday weekend and I've haven't had time to keep up with the blog.

The AAC placed four teams in the NCAA baseball tourney. Houston will serve as a regional host.

Commish Aresco hopes to negotiate a new TV deal within three years.

New Austin Bowl will wait until 2016 hoping for P5 tie in.

Underdog Dynasty Story on Austin Bowl

UMass Needs Naval Support - this blogger believes Navy should bolt from AAC and AAC should pick up UMass.

Getting To Know Our New Coaches - a profile of the three new head football coaches from the official site.

Memphis non-conference 2015-16 basketball schedule release.

AAC TV start times were announced for some 2015 football games on ESPN family.

American's East Contenders Can Change Way We Think About AAC

American West Can Help Shape Conference Image Too

AAC Imposes New Concussion Policy

Houston Lands Two More Top Recruits - the Htown Takeover Continues

Cincy on the Prowl Looks at why the Bearcats need P5 access.
Who in the AAC doesn't?

Cincy on the Prowl: Bearcat and AAC Links 5/26/15

Updates 5-29-15

Houston Baseball Benefits from California Pipeline
Houston Chronicle

5Dimes Released Over/Under for Total Wins in College Football
They don't think to highly of AAC. Memphis and Houston highest O/U at 8.5

AAC Official Site Highlights Some Key Football Matchups

Underdog Dynasty Examines the AAC Over/Unders

Underdog Dynasty: Examining the Financial Independence of the Underdogs

Today's U Ranks Top 3 Potential Biggest Upsets of Season
Memphis over Ole Miss is #2 on the list.

Other College News
C-USA Refuses to Change By-laws for UAB

Big 12 Splits $252 Million

Updates 5-30-15
From the Maroon Report: Houston Poses Major Threat To Aggie Recruiting
Nice to see some P5 fans quake a little at the #HtownTakeover

UConn Blog's Projected Men's Basketball Starting Line Up

Also from UConn Blog, VCU transfer Terry Larrier Chooses UConn

Voodoo Five recap of USF's win over FAU in baseball.
Voodoo Five story on former Badger safety transfers to South Florida.

Down The Drive takes a look at 2016 AAC Basketball Pairings

Saturday, May 23, 2015

New American Frontier - Houston Recruiting Blows Up

Houston head coach Tom Herman has geared up the #HtownTakeOver campaign. Herman and his staff are selling The H similar to the Miami Hurricane's The U. They want to build a fence around Houston and keep the top local talent at the University of Houston. Catchy slogans like Htown Take Over and Your City Is Calling are rallying cries for the Coogs.

Add in slick videos like this:

Well as of tonight, the campaign has taken root with a few locals.

The first big get for the Cougars was Ed Oliver as he committed to Houston on Thursday.

Following Oliver's commitment was another highly rated DT. Four star recruit Jordan Elliot cast his lot with the Cougars yesterday.

Add in three star QB Bowman Sells and the Coogs are building their Fence Around Houston.

Now the question remains....will the recruits remain with Houston? If they do, will they bring more highly ranked recruits with them?

Hopefully, not only do they stay, but other American teams can recruit at a high level and raise the status of the league overall. What the future holds towards expansion is unknown. The best bet for our AAC is to build up the league.

My hope is if we can't join the P5, make enough noise to get three or four top 25 ranked teams and cut into the P5 money. Maybe Kingmakers ESPN will at least add some money to conference coffers to put some space between the other so called G5 conferences.