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. 

New American Frontier - Way To Early Opening Week Spreads

Yes, I know it's a little to early for football spreads but it's a slow week and I want content for the blog.  I didn't say anything about quality right now...there will be time enough for that as we get closer to football season.

Courtesy of Jim and Sherri's Home Page (a less than inspiring website name), comes the document containing odds for the opening weekend of college football.  I couldn't find it on the website when I looked for an actual link.  I took it from C-USA message board over at NCAABBS.  I told you I scour message boards for AAC news....I'm AAC news starved.

For opening week, listed below are the AAC spreads:

• Vanderbilt (-17) vs. Temple
• Brigham Young (-11.5) @ Connecticut
• Ohio State (-9.5) vs. Navy (I included Navy as a future member)
• Central Florida (-4) vs. Penn State
• Houston (-12.5) vs. Texas-San Antonio
• Tulsa (-10) vs. Tulane
• Baylor (-23.5) vs. Southern Methodist

Only one conference game on the opening weekend with Tulsa and Tulane playing their first game as AAC teams.  Tulane beat Tulsa 14-7 in New Orleans last season.  Interesting to see Tulsa is a ten point favorite this year considering Tulsa was really bad last year and Tulane is on the upswing.

There is real opportunity for AAC teams to make some noise opening weekend.  Unfortunately I don't see any upsets happening week one.  You can't say AAC teams don't back down from a challenge with Vandy, BYU, Ohio St, Penn St. and Baylor on the first week. 

If I were a betting man, on this slate, I'd take Vandy, BYU, Ohio St., UCF, UH, Tulane and Baylor.