I'd have been more proactive. It's a failure of leadership in Charlotte to get the scraps of the AAC and Pac 12 because of some fake alliance with the B1G and the Pac. The latter had been on shaky ground for years because of Larry Scott's incompetence as Commissioner. USC took the first opportunity they had to leave by stabbing the conference in the back after pledging their loyalty. That was the first domino to fall. Phone calls should have been made and emergency meetings should have been taking place.
Let's stop pretending academics has anything to do with what's going on right now. Going off of that, I'd have begun conversations among the schools in the conference to poach the following from the AAC:
- Cincinnati (46K students)
- University of Central Florida (68K students)
I'd have reached out to the Eastern most BIG XII member (West Virginia) and see if there's any interest there. We've established that geography means nothing anymore. I'd go for quality revenue generating programs over academic institutions. You have Louisville in the conference and because of that, the ACC has forfeited any right to talk about academics.
SMU has donors, but donors can only give away their money for so long if there's no ROI. When you forfeit the kind of money they did, that's a sign of desperation and one I would be wary to attach myself to. That athletic department will be operating on a shoestring budget for the next decade.
I've already spoken my piece on Cal. The only reason their stadium got renovated is because it sits on a fault line. The administration would gladly let it decay.
