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The Roost Podcast | Ep 96 – Rice football to the AAC, UTSA recap, recruiting wins

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Rice football lost on the field this week, but reportedly picked up a major win off the gridiron with a potential move to the AAC. We break down the latest in realignment.

It wasn’t a good weekend for Rice football on the field. The Owls were run out of the Alamodome in decisive fashion despite two weeks to prepare for the game. What would have been a rather dour episode of The Roost Podcast turned elated when news broke that Rice was among a group of six schools expected to join the AAC in the near future. Carter and Matthew discuss the latest on the team, realignment and a couple of big wins on the recruiting front.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 96.

Episode Notes

  • Housekeeping
    • Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice. Every little bit helps.
    • Check out the Blue and Gray Preview Show every Wednesday at Noon, hosted by Matthew and Rice radio broadcaster JP Heath on the Rice Athletics Youtube Channel
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  • The latest happenings in Rice football 
    • Putting the UTSA game in the rearview mirror as quickly as possible
    • What went wrong against the Roadrunners, and what needs to change?
    • Realignment: Rice reportedly moving up to the AAC
    • Realignment: What happens to the remainder of Conference USA?
    • Recruiting: Rice football picks up two big wins off the field in the ’22 class

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Report: Rice Football expected to join the AAC

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BREAKING: Per a report by Yahoo!’s Pete Thamel, Rice football is expected to join the American Athletic Conference.

After flying almost entirely under the radar during the most recent round of realignment, Rice football and all Rice Athletics programs have found themselves in the spotlight. Per a report by Yahoo!’s Pete Thamel, the Owls are one six programs expect to apply to the American Athletic Conference, which is expected to accept all six applications.

Here’s Thamel’s report in its entirety:

“Sources: The American Athletic Conference is expected examine expansion this week, with six schools expected to send applications. The AAC is expected to receive an application from – FAU, Charlotte, North Texas, UTSA, Rice and UAB this week. The expectation is that they will be accepted and the AAC will grow to a 14-team football league. (Also 14 teams in hoops.)”

There might be smoke to this fire. The Athletic’s Chris Vannini echoed the report soon after, adding some additional color as well:

“Source confirms to The Athletic that the American Athletic Conference is expected to look at adding Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA.

Pete Thamel first reported.

Some in the AAC have wanted to go big and take Texas away from potential Mountain West expansion.”

Rice had received almost passive mentions in realignment discussions to this point. The Owls were connected to rumblings regarding the AAC late this summer and were eventually linked to the Mountain West.

If these most recent reports come to fruition—something that seems very probable, if not likely, at this point— months of wondering would come to an end and Rice would escape Conference USA. The Owls’ newfound conference might look something like this:

West: Rice, SMU, Tulsa, Tulane, Navy, North Texas, UTSA
East: USF, FAU, Temple, Memphis, UAB, Charlotte, ECU

Meanwhile, Conference USA would be left in pieces. The remaining teams would be UTEP, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, Western Kentucky, Marshall, FIU and Old Dominion. If the Sun Belt were to come calling, the league might very well cease to exist. Whether it was cunning or luck, or a mixture of both, Rice football might have found itself in the right place at the right time.

This is a developing story. Updates will follow.

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CFB Realignment: Where does Rice Football fit when chaos breaks out?

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Realignment is a continual undertone beneath college football. What happens when the dam breaks? And how could that impact Rice football?

Much has been speculated about what the landscape of college sports might look like in the coming years. Regional scheduling, realignment, partial realignment and expansion have all been bandied about in some form or fashion. But what does that mean for Rice football? Where will the Owls stand if and when chaos does shake up the sport?

Conference USA and its potential tipping point

The list of “what ifs” is long, but the bulk of the options revolve around the membership situation on Conference USA. If and when that membership changes, Rice will need to be quick to respond.

If someone leaves C-USA for greener pastures (the AAC or otherwise), the conference will need to decide on new membership. At the extreme, C-USA could proactively initiate a merger of some sort, pairing Rice with more geographically similar schools.

Or more chaotic still, what happens if Conference USA folds? Where would Rice go? Could independence or the FCS ranks be options? Independnce would be challenging, both logistically and financially. Playing in the FCS would require the program to swallow some pride, but the long term optics might return some swagger to the program. It’s hard to say definitively if either would be the “best” option for the Owls.

The truth is, everything would likely be on the table if Rice found themselves suddenly conference-less, including the possibility of the Owls founding a new conference in the midst of the chaos.

The Roost Podcast: Listen now to our Extended Offseason Interview Series

As mention in the AAC expansion conversation, the best thing for Rice football to do in the present is win. Winning will open doors while losing will close them. TCU didn’t magically arrive in the Big 12. They were in the right time at the right place, waiting to jump through the door as soon as it opened.

Right now there’s no way to know what doors will open or shut for the Owls in the near future. The current climate of the sport suggests an extended run of stability is unlikely.

Conference USA is nowhere near the top of the pecking order. It shares the lower runs with the Sun Belt in terms of prominence and has little cache as a collective. Individual brands and schools are interesting, but the collection of 14 institutions seems more convenient than beloved. There will be change. When and where? No one knows.

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Rice Football: Making the case for AAC Membership

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When AAC football lost UConn to the Big East a potential opening appeared in the conference. What stands in the way of Rice football making the move?

The college sports world seems like it’s careening toward chaos. Programs have been cut. Football season is in doubt. No one is in charge and no one has definite answers regarding what the future will hold. That lack of clarity is time to ask questions. Among them, where does Rice football fit in the college football landscape?

Will Conference USA be the Owls’ forever home or could there be an opportunity to make the move to the ACC in the future?

What stands in the way?

Let’s start a rung higher with the Big 12. Money has been the reason the Big 12 hasn’t expanded since it’s stopgap measure to add TCU and West Virginia. Adding another team would mean splitting the pie in yet another slice. The same rationale is true for the AAC and other conferences as well.

Unless the new member is going to bring enough revenue to make each current member’s slice bigger, the new addition would “cost” the current members money. That’s especially concerning in the current economic climate.

But that’s assuming stability. If the makeup of the membership of the AAC changes further, there could be opportunities to lay claim to a spot. And if for any reason the Big 12 went through a change in its membership and began looking toward the AAC, the ensuing musical chairs that followed might benefit Rice.

What if, for instance, Houston finally got the call? Wouldn’t the AAC consider replenishing its ties to the Houston market by adding Rice?

Why it makes sense

When UConn left the AAC was left with 11 football members. The conference had an easy opportunity to pursue expansion at that time, but chose not to do so. The 11-member schedule scraps divisions, creating a modified round-robin style of scheduling, or at least that’s the purported plan.

Rice will surely tout its academic prestige as a reason for admission. The Owls would easily sit atop the conference in that regard. Adding that widely accepted asset with a strong narrative on the field could get the Owls a seat at the table when the madness starts.

What does Rice need to do now?

If Mike Bloomgren can take Rice football to a few consecutive bowl games and push for a C-USA title over the next couple of seasons, selling the story of an up-and-coming program in a top national market becomes a little easier. For Rice, winning will be the prerequisite for any vertical ascent.

Stability is no longer the norm, especially not for college sports. Changes to the conference landscapes are coming. Rice could do a lot to bolster their attractiveness by winning, and winning now. Strong academic and strong athletics sell. Rice has half of that covered and has done extremely well in other sports like volleyball and women’s basketball.

The Roost Podcast: Listen now to our Extended Offseason Interview Series

If football joins the ascent, Rice could have a chance. At this point, it would still be a sizable jump, but what seams feasible in today’s climate could change drastically from what made sense yesterday. For the time being, win.

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College Sports Realignment: What’s next for Olympic sports?

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COVID-19 has already begun to change the college sports landscape as we know it and more adjustments could be on the way soon.

Change is coming for college sports and several programs have already reached the “worst-case scenario”. Old Dominion wrestling, FIU men’s track and field, Cincinnati men’s soccer and Bowling Green baseball have all been eliminated. More cuts are likely in the coming weeks as the financial ramifications of the shutdown persist. If football seasons are impacted, things could get much worse.

With that bleak backdrop, cost savings have become increasingly important. Could schools consider splitting their sports across multiple conferences in an effort to save costs? It’s plausible.

Why it makes sense

Football is the engine that makes college athletics go. Without the revenue from the gridiron, and in some cases men’s basketball, athletic programs operate in the red. Olympic sports are a prime example of athletic competitions that don’t make money. An alternative to slashing programs from the start could be a bifurcation of conference play by sport.

College football could continue to operate in much the same way. The revenue it derives from television contracts can support a few cross country flights and the various costs associated with fielding a team. But why does Rice volleyball need to fly to Charlotte or FAU? The Owls might be better suited taking a bus to play Texas State, Sam Houston or Lamar.

More regionalized scheduling in non-football sports would cut costs and provide matchups with more appeal to local fans.

What stands in the way?

Having one school span multiple conferences wouldn’t be a first, but it would be a departure from the norm. Schools like Wichita State, a basketball member of the American Conference, don’t participate in football with the AAC schools. Notre Dame is a pseudo-football member with ACC but has retained its independent status.

The Roost Podcast: Listen now to our Extended Offseason Interview Series

Playing football with one group of teams and other sports might seem unusual, but its far from unprecedented. Budget crunch or not, this is a solution that seems plausible and palatable for the future.

And the people say…

When the idea of regionalized scheduling started to be discussed, Rice football fans said it would change their attendance patterns. 58 percent of fans said a more regionalized schedule would cause them to attend more games, with 47 percent saying they would attend more away games if more Texas teams were added to the schedule.

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