With Big 12 expansion looming, Middle Tennessee eyes spot in AAC
The ripple effect of probable Big 12 expansion is already being felt behind the scenes.
The conference said last it month it would pursue two or four new members and most of the perceived top candidates — Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston, etc. — are in the American Athletic Conference. That would undoubtedly leave the AAC looking for new members of its own, right?
Middle Tennessee State seems to think so.
According to the Daily News Journal, MTSU athletic director Chris Massaro reached out to AAC commissioner Mike Aresco expressing interest in joining the league. In the May letter sent to Aresco, which the Daily News Journal obtained via public records request, Massaro detailed why he thinks MTSU would be a good fit in the AAC.
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MTSU is currently a member of Conference USA.
In the letter to Aresco, Massaro gets straight to the point in the first few paragraphs.
“I know conference realignment is a topic that we all hoped would be set aside for a few years,” Massaro wrote. “But with the Big 12 rumblings of expansion, it appears the dominoes may fall soon.
“I will be to the point. If you look at C-USA schools as replacements for American schools who may leave to join the Big 12, you will not find a better fit/candidate than Middle Tennessee State University. No one combines the TV market, with the combined success over the last five years for football and men’s basketball as Middle Tennessee. In fact, the comparisons are not close.”
Massaro also points to recent success in the two major revenue sports — football and men’s basketball. In football specifically (we are a football blog, after all), Massaro notes MTSU being eligible for a bowl game in seven of the past 10 seasons (The “best in (the) state of Tennessee and C-USA,” he notes), the team’s Top 10 APR in 2013-14 and Rick Stockstill’s status as the longest tenured head coach in Conference USA.
Murfreesboro’s proximity to Nashville and its media market also play a big role in Massaro’s pitch.
“Mike, Murfreesboro is truly part of the booming Nashville metropolitan area,” Massaro wrote to Aresco. “MTSU has a significant presence in Nashville and its TV market as illustrated by our strong NCAA Tournament game ratings.”
Massaro also noted that MTSU “has more alumni in the Nashville area than (Tennessee) or Vanderbilt combined.”
You can read Massaro’s entire letter here.
It is unclear when the Big 12 may reach a consensus (approval for new members requires votes from eight of the 10 league presidents) on expansion, but the league reportedly wants to reach its decision before the football season begins later this month. With that brewing, Massaro was smart to try to plant the MTSU seed in Aresco’s mind as early as possible.
Aresco acknowledged in late July that losing members to the Big 12 would likely come to fruition.
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“I’ve been talking to the (athletic directors) and the presidents of the schools that might leave and it looks like some of them will,” he told Tony Barnhart of GridironNow.com. “We’re talking to each other and trying to figure out the future.”
Aresco also said the league was “contingency planning for just about every scenario.” MTSU could be part of those plans.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
