[jacket3ree]

Rice fan here--been reading your board over the past few days in light of changes in the PAC-12 and rumors that include the possibility of a PAC-AAC merger to one extent or another.  

What's interesting to me is how much of the consternation here looks like the consternation that's been a fundamental part of the Rice fanbase for decades and decades (especially among the older alums who remember Rice being part of the Southwest Conference, which included Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Baylor, Houston, and others--and the really old fans who remember Rice going to Cotton Bowls).  The cries of lack of leadership and foresight are definitely part of the furniture of being a Rice fan.

What's fascinating to me is that Stanford is even in this situation, given your decades' dominance of the Sears Trophy (or whatever it's called now).  Yours it the model of what virtually every athletic department aspired to, or at least that was my long-time assumption.  The outsized influence of football--and how it informs TV contracts--is clear in every round of realignment, but it's especially acute, and destructive, in this one.

What would Stanford fans think of a model that basically rejects the P5 framework and being part of a league that is centered exclusively on AAU schools?  There are certain Rice fans that dream of a "Magnolia League" that would include Stanford, Cal, Duke, Northwestern, Vandy, and Tulane.  But obviously Duke, NW, and Vandy wouldn't be interested until they themselves have their PAC-4 moment.  Travel is obviously the big deal-killer to this model, especially for the non-revenue sports.

But would a PAC-AAC merger be a close-enough, light version of that model--and one that would be of some solace to some Stanford fans?

Sometimes you just have to go where you are wanted.  That all-AAU conference you mention is basically the B1G. A couple of us were going through research university rankings and that's what it is.

I posted my own version of a Magnolia League and called it the Southern Crescent Pacific League as a nod to the Southern Crescent from Atlanta to New Orleans and our founder's very own Southern Pacific.  It's an 'if you can't join them, beat them' effort.  It mixes the unwanted seven ACC schools, good AAC schools and the western schools not invited to the party. Stone cold fertile recruiting footprint.  The long game.

Cool to see an Owl on the board. I have vivid memories of my first Stanford game, 1985 versus Texas. However we found each other, I'm hanging with a group of graduate engineering students mostly from ACC schools, SEC schools, Houston, and Rice.  The two women from Rice were particularly and vocally, uh, vehement in their dislike for the Horns.  Awesome hang. For the next several years while single I pretended to be a student and just renewed my student tickets. No one said anything and I still looked all of 19 maybe.  So I still hung with the Owls and some of that pack for a while. I think it was the next year when we were watching Stanford play somebody - feels like future World domination partner San Diego State or the like (definitely another California team not named USC or UCLA) - and they announced the Rice-Texas score. We all heard/thought Rice had beaten Texas. The women sure did. (Remember this is the open container Stanford Stadium era.) Coupled with Stanford winning (generally good season having already beaten Texas and eventually went to its first bowl in a while) and a gorgeous day full of flesh and sunscreen, we went out and partied after the Stanford game ended. Great night until they found out Texas actually had barely won.  Then the night got better.  Feisty.

[jacket3ree]

Rice fan here--been reading your board over the past few days in light of changes in the PAC-12 and rumors that include the possibility of a PAC-AAC merger to one extent or another.  

What's interesting to me is how much of the consternation here looks like the consternation that's been a fundamental part of the Rice fanbase for decades and decades (especially among the older alums who remember Rice being part of the Southwest Conference, which included Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Baylor, Houston, and others--and the really old fans who remember Rice going to Cotton Bowls).  The cries of lack of leadership and foresight are definitely part of the furniture of being a Rice fan.

What's fascinating to me is that Stanford is even in this situation, given your decades' dominance of the Sears Trophy (or whatever it's called now).  Yours it the model of what virtually every athletic department aspired to, or at least that was my long-time assumption.  The outsized influence of football--and how it informs TV contracts--is clear in every round of realignment, but it's especially acute, and destructive, in this one.

What would Stanford fans think of a model that basically rejects the P5 framework and being part of a league that is centered exclusively on AAU schools?  There are certain Rice fans that dream of a "Magnolia League" that would include Stanford, Cal, Duke, Northwestern, Vandy, and Tulane.  But obviously Duke, NW, and Vandy wouldn't be interested until they themselves have their PAC-4 moment.  Travel is obviously the big deal-killer to this model, especially for the non-revenue sports.

But would a PAC-AAC merger be a close-enough, light version of that model--and one that would be of some solace to some Stanford fans?

Sometimes you just have to go where you are wanted.  That all-AAU conference you mention is basically the B1G. A couple of us were going through research university rankings and that's what it is.

I posted my own version of a Magnolia League and called it the Southern Crescent Pacific League as a nod to the Southern Crescent from Atlanta to New Orleans and our founder's very own Southern Pacific.  It's an 'if you can't join them, beat them' effort.  It mixes the unwanted seven ACC schools, good AAC schools and the western schools not invited to the party. Stone cold fertile recruiting footprint.  The long game.

Cool to see an Owl on the board. I have vivid memories of my first Stanford game, 1985 versus Texas. However we found each other, I'm hanging with a group of graduate engineering students mostly from ACC schools, SEC schools, Houston, and Rice.  The two women from Rice were particularly and vocally, uh, vehement in their dislike for the Horns.  Awesome hang. For the next several years while single I pretended to be a student and just renewed my student tickets. No one said anything and I still looked all of 19 maybe.  So I still hung with the Owls and some of that pack for a while. I think it was the next year when we were watching Stanford play somebody - feels like future World domination partner San Diego State or the like (definitely another California team not named USC or UCLA) - and they announced the Rice-Texas score. We all heard/thought Rice had beaten Texas. The women sure did. (Remember this is the open container Stanford Stadium era.) Coupled with Stanford winning (generally good season having already beaten Texas and eventually went to its first bowl in a while) and a gorgeous day full of flesh and sunscreen, we went out and partied after the Stanford game ended. Great night until they found out Texas actually had barely won.  Then the night got better.  Feisty.