I Tell Ya' Herbie: The American Athletic Conference took a body blow when all four Mountain West schools turned down invitations to move from the Mountain West to the AAC.
Boise State and San Diego State decided to stay put in hopes of an invite to join the Big 12 should they decide to add more schools (currently at 12 with rumors of moving to 14 or even 16) with Air Force and Colorado State staying in the league due to travel reasons, and rumored dissent over mutual rival Wyoming not receiving a golden ticket up the Group of Five ladder.
The AAC may be looking at either picking up some Sun Belt or CUSA schools to fill their slots and those possibilities lack the cache' of popular Boise State, a major city market without NFL football in San Diego State or the national cache' of a military school in Air Force.
The AAC choices may come down to do they prefer larger markets such as Charlotte, San Antonio (UTSA), Birmingham (UAB), and suburban Dallas (North Texas) or schools that on the football field could be ready to take the next step up the ladder such as Marshall, Coastal Carolina, Appalachian State, Louisiana, or Liberty.
I Tell Ya' Herbie: The Big 12 is not ruling out further expansion to 14 or even 16 teams.
Many are rumored for these spots with the two leaders for a fourteen teams setup being Memphis and Boise State, while if the league would decide to move to sixteen it could be a stampede for the final two chairs in a Power Five game of musical chairs.
No one will want to be the one left standing and several teams could make sense.
San Diego State would be the only team left in a football market and going into the Big 12 could make the Aztec program the biggest non-baseball team in the city.
Air Force brings a national fan base and Colorado State would help to add the Denver market.
South Florida would give Central Florida a rival and make the non-revenue sports lives a bit easier with two Florida teams instead of one.
SMU has begun to establish itself as a top G-5 program and would satisfy fans of the old SWC with their rivalry with TCU.
SMU would be hurt though by the Texas schools that gave ground to bring in Houston and may not want another player in recruiting the state.
Two remote long shots to consider could be UNLV and Georgia State.
UNLV is still the hometown team in Las Vegas, despite the arrival of pro sports in the city, and would bring excellent facilities to play in for both football and basketball.
Georgia State is located in Atlanta, has been pouring money into their facilities such as buying Turner Field and converting it to their football home, and while they may start as the weak sister of the league, they may not be that way for very long.
I Tell Ya' Herbie: What coach is on the hottest seat of all coaches currently?
It could be Manny Diaz at the University of Miami.
Diaz's Hurricanes are 2-3, losing supports from former players and boosters, and if not for a sizable buyout might be a guaranteed goner.
Miami suffers from a non-campus stadium,. a fan base that is getting finding it harder each year to remember their days as a national power, and with the fan base that does remember those days having unrealistic expectations for a small private school playing in a major conference.
I Tell Ya' Herbie: The most underrated coach in the country?
My vote goes to Dave Clawson of Wake Forest and not just because Wake Forest is the only remaining undefeated ACC squad.
When you look at Clawson's record you will see that the Demon Deacons have posted winning records in five of the last six seasons (Assuming Wake doesn't lose out) with the aberration being a 4-5 record in the 2020 pandemic season.
In my opinion, Wake Forest is one of the three most difficult jobs in the Power Five leagues ( along with Vanderbilt and Kansas) and if you can win there, well you can win anywhere.
Why someone hasn't scooped Clawson for a bigger school is beyond me.
TRS Top Ten
3: San Diego State
9: Nevada
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