Busting Brackets
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AAC Basketball: Analyzing the 6 new potential additions for league

By Joey Loose

Mar 19, 2021; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; The North Texas Mean Green celebrates beating the Purdue Boilermakers in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Nelles-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 19, 2021; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; The North Texas Mean Green celebrates beating the Purdue Boilermakers in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Nelles-USA TODAY Sports /
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Miles Lester Rice Owls (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
Miles Lester Rice Owls (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

Rice

With the Mountain West schools reneging the AAC, the plan no longer seems to be about expanding westwards. Instead, the AAC seems to be zeroing in on a big expansion in Texas, with Rice the second of those Texas schools from the C-USA. From a market standpoint, they’d slide right in, as the university is located right there in Houston besides the Cougars. However, Rice just simply doesn’t compare to Houston when it comes to their athletics.

The last time Rice was in the NCAA Tournament was way back in 1970 when back when they were conference mates with SMU in the Southwest Conference. Now, the Owls haven’t been bad for each of the fifty years since then, but you have to look hard to find sustained success; it just hasn’t happened. Rice recently had a solid 23-12 mark, but coach Mike Rhoades immediately bolted for VCU. Successor Scott Pera hasn’t done a bad job, finishing 15-13 last season, but Rice is not close to competing for C-USA titles.

From a basketball standpoint, Rice clearly isn’t adding much to the basketball relevance of the AAC. In a conference that will be run by Memphis, SMU, and Wichita State, it’s hard to imagine Rice breaking that long NCAA Tournament drought in the near future, especially if they couldn’t do it for decades in the SWC, WAC, and C-USA. The move may be more about geography and taking another sensible program from the C-USA, but it’s hard to imagine what Rice brings to this league.