Wow. That's insane.Originally Posted by HWill
The college landscape in the west is going to be completely different.
Wow. That's insane.
The college landscape in the west is going to be completely different.
Holy crap. Didn't see that coming.
There's also rumors that Louisiana Tech and UTEP will soon switch conferences. Also, Boise St. is not interested in returning to the WAC.
Update: Fresno and Nevada have accepted MWC invitations
Last edited by HWill; 08-18-2010 at 07:00 PM.
Fresno State & Nevada to Mountain West - Sounds like they start next season.
And Houston could join them.
Holy hell. There goes the neighborhood.
Twitter: @3YardsandACloud
On the upside, I'm going to love the new MWC. Pretty much all my favorite mid-major programs.
Twitter: @3YardsandACloud
This is one I fully favor and agree with. Having Louisiana Tech in the WAC has never made sense to me in terms of school locations. There's half a country between Louisiana Tech and every team in the WAC, so definitely a smart move by La. Tech. UTEP moving to C-USA, I suppose it could work better for them with some teams, though Marshall is a lot closer to UTEP than Hawaii. Though being on the very edge of western Texas, at least they're closer to the other WAC teams than La. Tech.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5477045
And in the latest story on "As the NCAA Turns", according to the WAC commissioner Karl Benson, the remaining WAC schools apparently aren't going to make it easy on the Fresno State and Nevada when they leave. As well, according to Benson, both schools didn't meet a deadline to get out of the league earlier, so they could possibly have to stay until 2012.
Also according to Benson, Fresno State and Nevada have "acted selfishly" when they accepted the invites to the MWC, basically dissolving an agreement the WAC and BYU had regarding all of BYU's sports other than football, though Benson says the WAC door is still open for BYU if the Cougars want to rework the arrangement.
Though it could be interesting if some of the teams (both in Division I-A and I-AA) mentioned by Benson as the WAC being interested in does become true, including the possibilities of Montana, UC-Davis and Cal-Poly.
The thing is, NONE of those schools are ANYWHERE CLOSE to being ready to move to Division I football.
The WAC is in trouble. They'll be lucky to still be a conference when this is all said and done.
Sadly true. If they were ever to make the move to the WAC, it would still be a good ways down the road. Though when that point down the road got here, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Montana especially in DI-A action. They've always been a team I also sort of followed and paid attention to on the side over the years, I'm not even sure why, haha.
And yeah, unless they can get those D I-AA schools to be ready to make the jump within the next 3-4 years (which would be pretty much impossible), unless they raid the Sun Belt or something, they are pretty much screwed. Boise State was by far their best team, with Fresno State and Nevada mixed in there. With those three gone, you're looking at Hawaii and Idaho as pretty much the front runners of the WAC now. Plus with all three leaving, the WAC's down to 6 teams, and there is really no one they can snatch from another conference that is going to replace Boise State, Nevada, or Fresno State on a 1:1 level.
So their best hope would be to bring in D I-AA teams who are FAR from ready from jumping up to D I-A football, or snatch teams from other low-level conferences like the Sun Belt who wouldn't have a hope in hell of replacing everything that Boise State and the rest brought to the conference over the years. None of the MAC teams would ever leave, nor do any of them make any logistical sense at all, none of the C-USA teams would ever leave for the WAC (with the exception of the rumored La. Tech-UTEP switch), no one would sure as hell leave the MWC for the WAC. And even then, about the only team that would even make a tiny bit of sense (though very, very little) from the Sun Belt, would be North Texas.
So yeah, I agree with your assessment. The WAC is screwed and is going to be very lucky to continue existing when the dust settles and everything is said and done over the next couple years.
Louisiana Tech won't make it into CUSA... they don't have the market, the success, the history, nor the attendance (ASU hosting USM drew more than LTU hosting Mississippi State). Loser Tech is going to have to make a hard decision... go independent and likely fade out completely or crawl on their knees to what they refer as "The Belch" (ie Sun Belt). I would love to have them in the Sun Belt purely because they would be a school that right off the bat half of the conference would hate (ULL, ULM, and ASU to start).
If it's any consolation, I put them in the Sun Belt in my offline dynasty!
Does a conference have the right to move an FCS team up or does the FBS governing body need to provide permission???
Pretty sure the NCAA gets a say in some form. Not entirely sure how that works though.
Yeah, the NCAA has to approve them and currently there is a moratorium on teams moving up through August of next year. I believe that means that they cannot begin their phased-in process until after that date. Right now only South Alabama has applied (I think) and they are scheduled to join the Sun Belt in 2013.
Add Hawaii to the rumors on "As the NCAA Turns". With Fresno State and Nevada bailing, there are now rumors that Hawaii is considering potentially going independent in football and possibly joining either the West Coast Conference or the Big West in all other sports. Basically, at this point, you could pull a guess completely out of your ass of what the next thing to happen/team to leave which conference will be, and you'd probably be correct.
Well, it's official:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/...r_espn_5517305
Isn't this nearly entirely based on attendance? I recall that being the case for Buffalo several years ago.
They tried to do that five years ago or so where schools were required to meet a minimum attendance every other year. That's what ultimately led the Razorbacks to strike a deal with UL Monroe so that every other year ULM would get to count the attendance for a game in Little Rock (essentially the swine thumbing their nose at ASU). In the end though, that stipulation was dropped... I don't believe there is a minimum attendance requirement anymore.
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