(07-17-2017 07:35 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  So as we all know, prior to the 1999 season a handful of university of presidents met at the Denver airport and half of the WAC quit and formed their own spinoff conference.

This make an awkward geographic situation even more awkward because of the the schools that were left their was a giant expanse between them--out west there was Hawaii, San Jose St, and Fresno St. Then you had another pod consisting of UTEP, Tulsa, SMU, TCU, and Rice.

What if the Big West would have jumped in and tried to solve the western schools' geography conundrum. Instead of Nevada and then Boise St joining the WAC, Hawaii and the two CA schools join a football Big West that includes Nevada, Boise St, Utah St, New Mexico St, North Texas, and Idaho and a CA centric non-FB league of UCSB, UC Irvine, Pacific, Cal St Fullerton, Long Beach St, and Cal Poly (or just the FB schools move, abandoning the other 6).

Meanwhile in the other block they either try to pry away teams from the new C-USA or schools like Arkansas St, ULL, and LA Tech.

Essentially the 2005-2010 WAC forms 6 yrs earlier (minus LA Tech plus UNT & maybe some CA basketball friends). FBS Sunbelt never happens.

In the Central Time zone the Big East raid on C-USA in 2005 creates a scenario where probably the Texas-centric WAC competes with C-USA for members, C-USA having ECU, UAB, USM, Tulane, Houston, and Memphis.

Very interesting. I can't speak with too much authority on the subject, but wasn't the WAC deemed a tier above the Big West, even after the MWC schools left?