The University of Connecticut is set to return to its roots as the school is expected to rejoin the Big East Conference in all sports except football. Should the reported move come to fruition, the American Athletic Conference could have an attractive vacancy for other institutions.
The AAC could choose to go in a number of directions as the conference may stick with 11 members, add one school for all sports, or add one school for football only and another for basketball.
Should the conference choose to go with the addition of an institution, could the AAC turn to Boone, NC, for its twelfth member?
While many schools will surely be chomping at the bit to join the American Athletic Conference, Appalachian State presents an intriguing option. The reasons for joining the AAC are obvious: Increase in revenue, greater exposure, and more quality opponents among others. The question for the AAC is why App State?
Name Recognition
App State isn’t the unknown commodity that took the college football world by storm by defeating Michigan in 2007. Now, the school is well known in college athletics and brings strong brand value. Athletics aside, the campus and surrounding area is highly regarded as one of the top college towns. Last year Hero Sports ranked Boone number 15 in its Top 100 College Football Towns in America.
Bottom line, people know where Boone is (Where’s Ann Arbor?) and who Appalachian State is in 2019.
Geographic Fit
Ultimately, a factor that could swing the pendulum in the wrong direction for Appalachian State is its market size, but a simple look at location makes sense. The American Athletic Conference has already found a home in North Carolina with East Carolina and adding a second school in the state would allow for a natural rivalry to blossom. Add in Cincinnati, Memphis and UCF in the AAC East Division and the logistics would work well.
The conference has already seen the travel nightmare with short lived member Boise State and with added emphasis on player health and safety, making the travel load lighter should be a priority.
Successful Transition
They’ve done it before, but can they do it again? The answer for App State is a simple yes.
App State is no stranger when it comes to winning across multiple levels. Since the university’s transition from the FCS to FBS in 2015, the Mountaineers have played in and won a bowl game every year and collected three consecutive Sun Belt Championships. App is the only program with no losses or ties in at least four bowl appearances.
App State is coming off of one of the most successful seasons in program history including the program’s first top-25 ranking, 11 wins, and only two losses.
To say App State has made a seamless transition would be an understatement.
Football, Football, Football
Perhaps the most important factor to consider while determining which school to extend a membership offer to is the overall success of the football program. When it comes to college athletics, we all know football is the cash cow.
With the recent success of Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, and UCF, the AAC has proven itself to be tops in the Group of 5 when it comes to football. It is with that success in mind that makes the Black and Gold an attractive option.
As mentioned earlier, App State has a tradition of consistently winning on the gridiron. Known as a football school, App State leads all Group of 5 programs with 41 wins in the last four seasons and is tied for sixth place in the nation. During that span only Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Georgia have more victories.
App State has also been able to hang with the “big boys” of college football in recent years as the team pushed Tennessee, Wake Forest, and most recently Penn State to the brink in the past three years.
