Tech desperately needs a travel partner...travel costs are killing us. The departure of the e-WAC is really draining our funds. If we are going to add teams, add several and make it possible to have an eastern component to the WAC. My votes would go to:

UNT
ULL
A-State
Troy

johnnylightnin Wrote:Tech desperately needs a travel partner...travel costs are killing us. The departure of the e-WAC is really draining our funds. If we are going to add teams, add several and make it possible to have an eastern component to the WAC. My votes would go to:

UNT
ULL
A-State
Troy

I don't know what the answer is, but IMO that's not it...I'm pretty sure that sort of option was explored and rejected (who did the rejecting doesn't really matter). A travel partner for LaTech would certainly help, but wouldn't solve the problem. And then if LaTech was able to get the CUSA invite that they want, we'd be right back where we are now.

The WAC isn't rolling in money, but it has to offer LaTech more revenue than the Sun Belt would. Lacking solid numbers, it's hard to know how much this offsets the higher travel costs. If the WAC continues to be successful in the NCAA tourney, occasionally gets teams in bowl games with decent payouts, and sees some increase in TV revenues, maybe LaTech can hang in there longer than the naysayers predict.

In my opinion, the sunbelt is not an option. The WAC is far better for us than the belt ever could be. But...it feels like we're just delaying the inevitable(sp.). I personally love the WAC and think that is has tons going for it right now, but our finances are drying up quickly. I don't know what the answer is either. I also don't know how much longer Tech can continue with our current financial status.

I like Tech, but I think it would have been better for everyone if C-USA would have taken LaTech instead of UTEP (including UTEP and C-USA).

That said I think the WAC already tried to invite North Texas, Arkansas State and others and was rejected. Even if they did come we (the WAC) would have the same problem when LaTech or whoever else did leave the conference. I feel for Tech and the league should accomadate them as much as possible but we should not make the same mistake twice, we need to stay in the West.

Montana, and Montana State will not come, Portland State can't afford to offer all the required Big Sky Conference sports, our best bet is UC-Davis.

I'd rather add Portland State and any one of SDSU, UNLV, Sac St or Davis while losing La Tech (no offense).

SJGregg Wrote:I'd rather add Portland State and any one of SDSU, UNLV, Sac St or Davis while losing La Tech (no offense).

The situation with LaTech isn't ideal, but at this point we need them just as much as they need us. I'm all in favor of them staying as long as they want to (or can afford to).

Adding SDSU and/or UNLV would be great for the WAC, but it isn't going to happen (unless there are some very surprising changes).

Some numbers on D1AA facility capacity and (attendance):

UCD
Football: Multi-Use Stadium 15000* (~7K):
Basketball: Recreation Hall 7800 (1910)

Sacramento St
Football: Hornet Stadium 17000** (~6K)
Basketball: Hornet's Nest 1200 (869)

Portland St
Football: PGE Park 20000 (~6K)
Basketball: Memorial Coliseum 12666 (1273)

Northern Arizona
Football: Walkup Skydome 16230 (~8K)
Basketball: Walkup Skydome 7000 (1281)

Texas St
Football: Bobcat Stadium 15218 (~11K)
Basketball: Strahan Coliseum 7200 (1935)

*New stadium under construction, "eventual buildout to 30K"
**current capacity (formerly 26000)

Subjective facilities ranking:
1. UC-Davis - edge due to new football stadium; prob. best BKB arena
2. Texas St - nice field house/weights facility; BKB arena comparable to UC-Davis
3. NAU - big dropoff from top 2; Skydome = Kibbie Dome
4. Portland St - large, but old facilities
5. Sac St - Hornet Stadium isn't bad, but BKB arena is

clpack Wrote:

SJGregg Wrote:I'd rather add Portland State and any one of SDSU, UNLV, Sac St or Davis while losing La Tech (no offense).

The situation with LaTech isn't ideal, but at this point we need them just as much as they need us. I'm all in favor of them staying as long as they want to (or can afford to).

Adding SDSU and/or UNLV would be great for the WAC, but it isn't going to happen (unless there are some very surprising changes).

Some numbers on D1AA facility capacity and (attendance):

UCD
Football: Multi-Use Stadium 15000* (~7K):
Basketball: Recreation Hall 7800 (1910)

Sacramento St
Football: Hornet Stadium 17000** (~6K)
Basketball: Hornet's Nest 1200 (869)

Portland St
Football: PGE Park 20000 (~6K)
Basketball: Memorial Coliseum 12666 (1273)

Northern Arizona
Football: Walkup Skydome 16230 (~8K)
Basketball: Walkup Skydome 7000 (1281)

Texas St
Football: Bobcat Stadium 15218 (~11K)
Basketball: Strahan Coliseum 7200 (1935)

*New stadium under construction, "eventual buildout to 30K"
**current capacity (formerly 26000)

Subjective facilities ranking:
1. UC-Davis - edge due to new football stadium; prob. best BKB arena
2. Texas St - nice field house/weights facility; BKB arena comparable to UC-Davis
3. NAU - big dropoff from top 2; Skydome = Kibbie Dome
4. Portland St - large, but old facilities
5. Sac St - Hornet Stadium isn't bad, but BKB arena is

No, No, No to NAU...you can't get there from here.....
Here being anywhere....

If the WAC adds a team to balance the basketball schedule, then add Davis and let Davis play football as an independent or in the Great West for as long as that lasts...until they can move their football up to D1A. At least there is a future there...............

adding three top 100 teams from last years sagarin rankings would certainly help basketball:


nevada-gonzaga
fresno-pacific
san jose - hawaii

boise-idaho
utah st.-denver
nmsu-latech

Gonzaga and Pacific will not come. And Denver adds very little and will never add football. The school to add is UC-Davis. They are in the heart of our geographic footprint and will eventually play football in the conference.

I guess nobody cares that our "travel" partner is 900 miles away.

:cry:

IMO, much of the WAC does care that La Tech is in a tight spot from a geograhical travel standpoint. Personally I like La Tech, but if I had a vote on expansion, I would not vote to add a local travel partner for them, the reality is they are just too far away from the West.
I read the comments from some of the La Tech posters on their mesage board after the Nevada game and there appears to be a decent percentage that also want some type of closer conference(CUSA) with regional games. I suspect that will not happen unless CUSA loses a team, even then who knows if they pick La Tech over a NMSU or N. Texas? I say La Tech is more than welcome in the WAC, but no to a local travel partner. My main concern is if the WAC did provide La Tech with a close travel partner, and La Tech went to CUSA, the WAC would still have a school with the same issues that LA Tech has right now. The WAC is what it is, with long trips to Hawaii and La Tech, but to add another long trip is not attractve to me. Maybe I'm in the minority on this issue, who knows?

nwp Wrote:IMO, much of the WAC does care that La Tech is in a tight spot from a geograhical travel standpoint. Personally I like La Tech, but if I had a vote on expansion, I would not vote to add a local travel partner for them, the reality is they are just too far away from the West.
I read the comments from some of the La Tech posters on their mesage board after the Nevada game and there appears to be a decent percentage that also want some type of closer conference(CUSA) with regional games. I suspect that will not happen unless CUSA loses a team, even then who knows if they pick La Tech over a NMSU or N. Texas? I say La Tech is more than welcome in the WAC, but no to a local travel partner. My main concern is if the WAC did provide La Tech with a close travel partner, and La Tech went to CUSA, the WAC would still have a school with the same issues that LA Tech has right now. The WAC is what it is, with long trips to Hawaii and La Tech, but to add another long trip is not attractve to me. Maybe I'm in the minority on this issue, who knows?

I agree. LaTech will be faced with the long trips out west as long as they're in the WAC, and adding a travel partner isn't going to change that. Hopefully, the WAC can do what they can to minimize the problem...give LaTech a little special consideration in scheduling, for example. Adding a 10th member would help. This year, LaTech makes 6 conference road trips for basketball (doubling up for Boise/Idaho and Fresno/San Jose)...with 10 members, that would be cut to 5.

As far as being 900 miles away from your travel parter...well, that's closer than San Jose and Hawaii, and in some circumstances Nevada will be travel partners with Utah St (500 miles). The WAC is a very spread out conference (so is CUSA, BTW)...just the way it is.

NWP,

I think your thoughts are pretty representative of most of the conference. As a fan myself, I love the WAC. I love playing Boise, Fresno, UH, Nevada, ect. every year. I think the new teams will get stronger and this conference will be solid. But, like I said before, the travel is killing us. I would much rather remain in the WAC then go back to the Belt, but I'm pretty sure that if CUSA did want us, we'd be gone...which would put our "travel partner" in a bind. I don't really see any easy solutions unless we really added quite a few teams and created another e-wac...I know that's not plausible right now, but I would prefer that.

Quote: Gonzaga and Pacific will not come

I can't see why Pacific wouldn't come. The WAC has so much more to offer than the Big West does, even if the BWC is finally geographically friendly. The gap between the WCC and the WAC is a lot closer and the institutions are very like-minded so prying Gonzaga away would be harder.

that was my deal about adding uta and utsa. dallas-fort worth and san antonio are huge markets, with big airports, and they are a lot closer than ruston, la.


if you add uta to be a travel partner with tech, and utsa to go with nmsu, it would help travel out a lot. if tech ever left, just put uta and utsa as travel partners. those two programs would improve tremendously if they got in the wac. and the wac needs to get back in texas.

now:

hawaii-san jose
fresno-nevada
boise-idaho

denver-utah st.
nmsu-utsa
latech-uta

if tech leaves: maybe cal-davis will be ready by then.

hawaii-san jose
fresno-(cal davis?)
boise-idaho

utah st.- nevada
nmsu-denver
utsa-uta

an ewac would also save traveling for western teams.

right now, say your nevada and you have to play a mens basketball game in every wac city including ruston and las cruces every year (8 road games)

if we went to 12 teams, you would play your 5 western division teams home and away, but you would only play 3 road games(plus 3 at home) against the east. (8 total road games again). no difference in games.

instead of playing in ruston every year, you play in arlington one year, then ruston the next. instead of playing in las cruces every year, you alternate with san antonio. you also alternate between utah st. and denver. denver and san antonio arent closer than utah or new mexico, but they are easier to fly into.


denver, texas-arlington, and texas-san antonio may not be world beaters. but they have the potential to improve, they are in HUGE markets, they would help travel, and who knows, maybe being in the wac would inspire them to add football in the future.

UC-Davis is NOT coming to the WAC because they are already slated to join Big West and Big Sky for sports so they won't be coming higher than than anytime soon.

Overall we need to have a school ot join the WAC that will bring something to the table and also help WAC get better as a conference and not bring in another school that is right now near the bottom. In all the talk North Texas might be the best option out there right now for expansion but they have said no once before so I don't know if they are really interested in coming into the WAC.

There doesn't appear that many teams that will fit the criteria right now. But from what I read before, WAC wants to add an eastern WAC school to help out LT.

Wolf Pack 1, UC-Davis is joining the Big West, they are NOT joining the Big Sky for anything. Where that rumor started I do not know. But you can check with the Montana fans at egriz.com or the Big Sky Conference site http://www.bigskyconf.com.

UC-Davis will be playing all sports, but football which will stay in the Great West, in the Big West starting in 2007.

The Great West gives UC-Davis a home for football for the time being, but that conference is unlikely to survive indefinitely in its current form (6 teams spread from Calif. to the Dakotas). Joining the Big West will give UCD a chance to develop and work on their facilities, but with football, the WAC would be a better situation for them. They're unlikely to join the WAC any time soon unless we have another crisis, but joining the Big West now doesn't mean they won't join the WAC later.

I know probably few posters on this board even know about North Dakota State but I was just wondering if the WAC would ever be willing to add NDSU. NDSU has some nice facilities, it is a state flagship school, and and is very well supported by it's fans, alumni, and students. NDSU has an enrollment of around 12,000 students and the school is located in the city of Fargo(200,000). Here are a few picks of NDSU facilites:

FargoDome(18,900)


Bison Sports Arena(6,500)This is after renovation


Newman Outdoor Field(4,500)
<a href='http://cache.nmn.speedera.net/pics27/400/IB/IBWCURZLUWXZTTT.20050303200417.gif' target='_blank'>http://cache.nmn.speedera.net/pics27/400/I...50303200417.gif</a>

Currently the NDSU football team is ranked 17th in IAA and attendance wise the school is averaging 14,006 per game and NDSU attendance has always been solid no matter how good or bad the team is but the school has only had two loosing seasons since 1964 so there hasn't been too many bad seasons. NDSU was a DII school not too long ago and moved up to DI around the same time UC Davis moved up. Right now NDSU is having a tough time finding a confernce mainly due to location, most schools from the Big Sky really seem to want to add NDSU but they are being blocked by PSU, NAU, and Sac St because they can't afford to travel that far east. I wonder how schools that can't afford to travel to NDSU will suddenly be able to afford to go IA because I have heard all three of these schools being talked about as canidates in this thread.

As for WAC sports that NDSU plays
mens-footbal, basktball, track(outdoor and indoor), cross country, baseball, and golf(NDSU also has a wrestling program)
womens-basketball, volleyball, golf, track(outdoor and indoor, softball, and cross country(there is also talk of adding tennis)

NDSU is a landgrant school and just the other year the school went over 100 million in research dollars. The school has always had a solid athetics program(20 DII titles) and I think by 2008 every sport will have complete funding and the athletic budget will be at about $10 million. And I am not trying to say that NDSU should be considered before Montana or UC Davis since they are both solid schools but I think NDSU could bring more to the WAC then PSU, SAC St, and NAU could and I was just wondering if the WAC would ever consider adding NDSU in the future.