‘We knew this was a risk’: How conference realignment could affect AAC, Wichita State
It wasn’t long ago that Wichita State was on the exciting end of conference realignment.
Leaving the Missouri Valley and joining a new conference — the American — brought new possibilities, not just for the men’s basketball program, but for the rest of the Wichita State athletic department.
But just four years later, Wichita State and the American seem to be nearing a journey into an unknown future together. Multiple reports say the Big 12 is planning to add three of the AAC’s top schools — Cincinnati, Houston and Central Florida — as well as BYU by the end of this week.
In an interview with The Eagle, AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said the conference has yet to receive an official notice from any of the three schools, but did seem resigned to the fact that their exit from the conference is inevitable.
“When there’s this much smoke, there’s probably a fire,” Aresco said. “We have not received an official notice yet. But if we do, we’ll deal with it if that does happen. We don’t know what the timetable would be or how many seasons those teams would play in our league.
“I would like to add that when comparing the remainder of the Big 12 after Texas and OU leave, I think our league is stronger and I think our league has more potential. It would be a shame if those teams do go, but if they do, we’ll be prepared to deal with that and move on.”
When WSU paid $2.5 million to join the American in the summer of 2017, it did so because it believed joining a stronger men’s basketball conference would raise the profile of the school’s biggest money-making program. But since then, the AAC has lost Connecticut and is now expected to lose Houston, Cincinnati and UCF, three of the strongest men’s basketball programs in the conference.
That’s not exactly the basketball league that WSU originally signed up for, but WSU athletic director Darron Boatright said he has no regrets about how conference realignment has worked out for the Shockers.
“We knew it was a calculated risk when we joined and you never know the timeframe of things like this happening because there’s a lot of factors that go into it that you can’t predict,” Boatright said. “We knew coming into the American in the summer of 2017 that this was a risk, but we thought it was one worth taking and still believe it was one worth taking.
“This is just part of the landscape right now in college athletics and you can’t begrudge any institution for doing what they feel is right for their institution, no different than what we did four years ago.”
There has been some speculation in WSU’s fan base about if the best future for the school would be to pursue joining the Atlantic 10 or Big East to try to ensure the best possible fit for men’s basketball.
Boatright shot down those rumors. He made it clear that Wichita State is committed to the American.
“We support the heck out of the American Athletic Conference and we support the heck out of commissioner Aresco,” Boatright said. “We will follow his lead and we believe we’re in good hands. We’ll do whatever is asked of us by commissioner Aresco and the American to make things stable or even stronger and to attempt to recruit others if we do get to that point.”
Conference realignment is driven almost entirely by how much a school’s football team and regional television market could help a conference’s TV deal. Without football, Wichita State isn’t a power player in these talks.
“We know we’re not in a position to go out rogue on our own,” Boatright said. “We’ve got to be supportive and show solidarity with the AAC. We don’t have football, so we know we’re different. We’re more in the supporting cast role, not so much the leading actor role.”
While the exit of Houston, Cincinnati and UCF seem inevitable, the question remains of how soon they plan to leave. Per AAC rules, schools must give the league 27 months notice and pay a $10 million fee to leave.
If the schools give the AAC an official notice by the end of this week, then their projected exit date would be January 2024. It’s likely the schools plan to leave before, much like UConn did when it paid the AAC $17 million to leave early to join the Big East. The details could be finalized by the end of this week.
Aresco said he could empathize with Wichita State’s fans as they watch the landscape of their conference change.
“When you’re a basketball and Olympic-sport school and you’ve got to watch all of this realignment that’s driven by football, I fully get how frustrating that can be,” Aresco said. “I know it’s hard to ignore all of that, but my message to Wichita fans would be to try to.
“We’ve got an excellent basketball league and even with realignment, we’re going to have an excellent basketball league. If we have to do any replenishment over the next couple of years, we would absolutely try to strengthen our football and our basketball. I understand that realignment could potentially impact our basketball, but if we have to do any rebuilding then we’re going to try to make sure we’ll always have good basketball in this league.”
During WSU’s brief time in the American, the conference has earned a reputation as a multiple-bid league in the men’s NCAA Tournament. But that reputation was built in large part by the success of Houston and Cincinnati, while UCF also logged an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019.
If those three exit, then that would leave eight basketball-playing schools in the conference: WSU, Memphis, SMU, Tulsa, Temple, South Florida, Tulane and East Carolina. Not only would the Shockers men lose two of their top rivals and competition, but the conference would only have one other men’s team (Temple in 2019) that has played in the NCAA Tournament since WSU joined.
The pressure of playing in the Missouri Valley near the end of its run was even if WSU won the regular-season title, it wasn’t necessarily guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Tournament field. WSU felt some of that pressure alleviated by joining the American, where they felt like a top-four finish could be enough to make it to March Madness.
That luxury could be gone when Houston, Cincinnati and UCF leave, as it’s unlikely the AAC could find three replacements that could replicate the success and credibility they gave the conference in men’s basketball.
But before WSU fans start to panic, all Aresco asks is to stay patient and give him a chance if the conference does indeed need to find three new schools to join.
“We have an attractive league and we have something else, we have some DNA in this league that is very competitive and achievement-oriented,” Aresco said. “People used to think this league was in complete disarray and now we’ve grown to become very strong, nationally relevant and a power-six conference.
“Should they leave, our schools would be helping to prop up the other eight of the Big 12. Think about that. They would be restoring their P5 position by using our schools, so therefore I think that shows we’ve been a P6 conference all along and we just haven’t gotten credit for that.
“We still don’t know what’s going to happen yet, but if they do leave then we’ll still have a strong basketball league. If we do need to add teams, then we will find teams that in addition to football play good basketball, so I firmly believe we will have a good, strong basketball league. We’re a strong, dynamic, forward-thinking conference and whatever happens we’ll continue in that mode.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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