JDGaucho,

The issue for NMSU is finances, and the Big West requires paying travel money. That kills it for them. They are already budget constrained. They don't have a big time football program like Boise State which was supposed to bring in an extra $10m a year (Big East promises not kept) to pay for Big West Olympics. This has always been the issue, and always will be. The RPI is very much secondary. And again look at a 5 or 6 year average rather than a single data point.

Yeah, I also don't see a hill of beans difference for the conference one is in if not the top 12 (6 majors, plus WCC, A10, AAC, with MWC and MVC on the verge of slipping out of the "upper mid-majors" category). They are all single bid.

But the WAC is weak, and you can see that by having some fun and moving GCU and NMSU to say the MVC or Horizon and then computing the changed Sagarin ratings. Those conferences move up a spot or two and the WAC falls several spots, almost to the bottom.

Jerry Coangelo has a vision of the best mid-major programs (we are talking those ranging from 60 to 120 in budget size but not in one of the six major conferences ... the AAC has almost all it's members in there ditto most of the A10 and WCC schools though a bit further down the scale, plus the likes of NMSU, GCU) forming conferences where they would be competing for more than one bid. The problem of course is these programs are scattered across different conferences. So I don't know how that ever happens beyond fan dreams.

JD, you are more a die-hard advocate for Big West expansion beyond California than an fair minded analyst of the reality. This thread is more about advocacy than reality.

The Big West is not an option for NMSU. Budget (travel fees) are the reason.

The Big West is not an option for GCU because of UC politics and for-profit schools, and frankly for faith based schools of any kind.