Six candidates for Big 12 expansion: Yay or Nay?
The Big 12s latest expansion talks turned into another big tease, meaning Tulane and 10 other schools that interviewed with the conference in September are right back where they started.
For Tulane, that means trying to become a contender in the American Athletic Conference, considered the top league outside of the "Power Five" conferences that dominate attention and revenue in college football.
The Green Wave is 3-15 in AAC football games through two-plus years and is coming off a last-place finish in mens basketball, prompting new athletic director Troy Dannen to hire Willie Fritz as his football coach and Mike Dunleavy as his hoops coach soon after arriving in New Orleans. Fritz has guided the Wave to a 3-3 start for only the second time in 13 years, but Tulane is 0-2 in conference play, home losses to Navy and Memphis.
Dannen was traveling Monday night and unreachable for comment, but he has made his position clear on elevating Tulanes athletic program since he arrived.
I expect to compete with the Big 12 and the ACC day in, day out in every sport whether Im in their league or not in their league so Ive got to make sure our program is in a position to do that, he said in January. You shouldnt look at one duck and be able to tell its Tulane and another duck and tell its Duke or another duck and tell its TCU. I want us to look like all the other ducks in the pond.
Tulanes Big 12 candidacy hinged on its sterling academic reputation. It is one of 62 members of the Association of American Universities, which is limited to top research institutions. Buffalo and Rice were the only other FBS members not already in a "Power Five" conference, so it was no coincidence when Tulane and Rice made the initial cut among 20 schools on the Big 12"s list, while Memphis did not.
Still, the Wave was considered a long shot even if the Big 12 expanded by four and out of the picture if the league expanded by two, with Houston, BYU, Cincinnati and UConn the favorites in almost every scenario.
It turned out that no one had a shot, with the Big 12s unanimous decision to stand pat leaving the AAC intact at 12 teams. Six of the 11 Big 12 expansion finalists were from the AAC, with Central Florida and South Florida the other league teams under consideration. The AAC would have struggled to replace any defectors with equivalent programs.
Tulane thought it was joining a power conference when it accepted an invitation from the Big East in November 2012. A day later, Louisville announced it was leaving for the ACC. Soon after, the league split in half, with its non-football members retaining the Big East label while the football schools became the AAC.
There is a huge gap between the AAC and Big 12 in revenue. The Big 12"s television contracts with ESPN and Fox, which run through 2024-25, are worth more than $20 million per year for each school. Each member of the AAC earns about $2 million annually from deals with ESPN and CBS Sports that run through 2019-20.
On the field, the difference has been much smaller. The AAC is 29-14 in nonconference games this year, and the Big 12 is 19-11. Houston beat Big 12 favorite Oklahoma 33-23 to start the season, rising to No. 6 in The Associated Press poll before losing to fellow AAC school Navy.
Source: http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/sports/tulane/article_c9b4d504-94d5-11e6-ab07-c7466cb275ad.html
