AAC advantage over MWC

AAC aka the newly rebranded Big East football schools, was bashed by media and broadly labelled as a little brother to the resurgent MWC when BSU and SDSU decided to stay. And the new tv contract also had to be a huge letdown to former Big East teams that enjoyed payouts prior to the Big 6 conferences consolidating down to 5.



But, what AAC still has over MWC, and BYU for that matter, are Bowl Tie ins. That may or may not last, but if you go to CBS Sports and look at the way-to-early bowl predictions for next season and work backwards from the January bowls to the early December bowls - which roughly mirrors status and payout for the most part - AAC still has advantageous tie-ins.



Let us all hope that The AAC is further raided and decimated and that a few of those tie-ins free up in the future.



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The AAC still has an auto bid to a BCS bowl in 2013. That is going away. There will be other major changes in 2014, in addition to the College Football Playoff - most bowl contracts are up for renewal or realignment after this season.



The CFP is taking the Cotton Bowl and Peach Bowl from the non-BCS/playoff bowl inventory, so the SEC, Big 12, and ACC will be looking for replacement bowls. Also, the expanding Big Ten and ACC are looking for an extra bowl or two for their respective lineups. The AAC's bowl lineup will be the likely casualty. The AAC can say goodbye to the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando.



I'm sure the AAC will maintain some of its existing bowls, but the AAC's best bowl game might be the Belk Bowl in Charlotte against ACC #5. That's a huge hit from the current system, and comparable to the MWC's Las Vegas Bowl matchup with PAC 12 #4/5.



Here's what I think the AAC bowl affiliations will be after the 2013 season:



* Group of 5 Access Bowl (if AAC champ is the highest rated Group of 5 champ)

Belk Bowl in Charlotte, NC v. ACC #5/6

Pinstripe Bowl in NYC v. Big Ten #6/7

Liberty Bowl in Memphis, TN v. SEC #8/9 or Big 12 #7

Beef O'Brady's in St. Petersburg, FL v. C-USA

[Texas Bowl game] v. MWC or C-USA (Armed Forces? Meineke? Heart of Dallas?)

http://www.offtackleempire.com/2013/5/10/4317914/2013-bowl-draft" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



This links to a good breakdown of some predicted bowl tie ins for 2014 and beyond. The AAC gets a major demotion - the Big 12 and Big Ten reaching into Florida and New York and the SEC replacing TWO bowls will be hard for the AAC to compete with.



They predict that BYU will end up in the Kraft Hunger Bowl - in the mix with Army and the AAC. I think we will see a multi-bowl approach with the Hunger Bowl, Armed Forces Bowl and may be Hawaii or Las Vegas Bowl, all somehow in the potential rotation.

It has been tough to track all of the timing of Big East football defections. But I would presume that as transitions already announced to Big 10 or ACC are finalized, AAC is already destined to become less attractive to bowls - as you have indicated. I would just like to see ACC grab two more teams and MWC grab 2 more teams and render them even more irrwlevant.



But, I agree that the bountiful bowl situation AAC will enjoy this year will diminish.



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Cougarbib wrote:
It has been tough to track all of the timing of Big East football defections. But I would presume that as transitions already announced to Big 10 or ACC are finalized, AAC is already destined to become less attractive to bowls - as you have indicated. I would just like to see ACC grab two more teams and MWC grab 2 more teams and render them even more irrwlevant.



But, I agree that the bountiful bowl situation AAC will enjoy this year will diminish.



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And, the favorite to win the 2013 Big East auto bid is ACC-bound Louisville. Kind of a slap in the face for the AAC. Looks like the 2014 AAC champ will be lucky to land a spot in the Belk Bowl.



(Side note: This AAC versus ACC thing is really confusing - naming fail by the AAC - they should have hired the branding geniuses that came up with "College Football Playoff". Seriously).