When you talk about the WAC with fans from other conferences, the first stab they take is that SJSU, Idaho, NMSU and Utah St all suck. I can't argue that, to a large degree, when it comes to football. But I think, at least, 2 or 3 of those teams are going to have some significant improvement over the next 2 or 3 years. Even this year, if you look at OOC games, I think these teams have legitimate chances to win some games and gain a little respect for the WAC's bottom 4.

#83 New Mexico St
Home: D1AA SE Louisiana, #70 New Mexico, D1AA Texas Southern
Road: #100 UTEP (probably a better team than this ranking)
Average OOC Ranking: *#103
#83<#103

NMSU has at least 2 games that they should win and at least 1 game that they easily could win.

#99 San Jose St
Home: #47 Stanford, D1AA Cal Poly, #78 San Diego St
Road: #46 Washington
Average OOC Ranking: *#73
#99>#73

SJSU has 1 game that they should win and SDSU is a game that they easily could win.

#108 Utah St
Home: #39 Utah
Road: #92 Wyoming, #38 Arkansas, #61 BYU
Average OOC Ranking: #58

Utah St doesn't have any gimmes but Wyoming and BYU are games that they very well could win.

#108>#58
#112 Idaho
Home: D1AA Idaho St
Road: #50 Michigan St, #29 Washington St, #21 Oregon St
Average OOC Ranking: *#55
#112>#55

Idaho has one gimme and the others, I'd be suprised to see them win one, but, hey, anything is possible (Especially when you consider how high on Erickson that Vandals are.).

So what games do the bottom 4 need to win, to gain the WAC the respect that it deserves and propel one of the WAC's top four into having a chance of a BCS bowl?

Second question is what do the WAC's top 4 (arguably Nevada, Hawaii, Fresno St and Boise St) have to do in OOC to get the respect that they deserve?

For Nevada to get any kind of respect it will have to beat ASU and Northwestern this season as well as improve attendance.

Just win baby...

NuMexAg Wrote:Just win baby...

IMO, it's not about just winning. We're all optimistic about our teams right now, but the bottom 4 teams aren't going to win every OOC game they play (I hope I'm wrong). What games to they need to win to get the WAC the respect it deserves? If we could put all our cookies in one jar which games would those be?

IMO, for Utah St it's BYU and Wyoming.

No one outside of the WAC or MWC is going to be very impressed with a USU win over Wyoming or even BYU..

The MWC got a school to a BCS bowl and the media back east still confuses the conference with the WAC.

The only respect that really matters is among your conference mates. They are your business partners..A solid, stable conference with good, long standing rivalries is good enough..

nvspuds Wrote:No one outside of the WAC or MWC is going to be very impressed with a USU win over Wyoming or even BYU..

I couldn't agree more, however, the overall conference ranking will improve if the "bottom 4" win games such as these. And that will give the WAC some respect, as it did for basketball. We wouldn't have had 2 teams dancing if we didn't have the 9th best conference RPI. It works similarly for football. In order to get our best team in a bowl game with a higher pay-out, our conference ranking needs to improve over years past.

nvspuds Wrote:The MWC got a school to a BCS bowl and the media back east still confuses the conference with the WAC.

The only respect that really matters is among your conference mates. They are your business partners..A solid, stable conference with good, long standing rivalries is good enough..

I agree largely with you, here, but we're talking about our peers which not only includes fellow WAC fans, coaches, and media but it includes all of those entities in every other mid-major conference.

I just don't care what the fans from other conferences think...

If NMSU beats UTEP this year that will get a good amount of respect for NMSU.

nvspuds Wrote:I just don't care what the fans from other conferences think...

I agree with that statement. However, "perception" of a conference is still very important as long as polls are partially responsible for determining who attends the most lucrative bowl games. For years many college football fans have suggested that BYU's national championship should have come with an asterick since they played in the WAC. And some have claimed that the reason that Utah went to a BCS bowl instead of Boise State in 2004 was because the MWC was perceived as a better conference than the WAC. (Personally, I would disagree with that statement... I think it has more to do with the fact that Utah won all of their games by at least 2 TDs whereas Boise struggled to beat BYU and went to overtime against SJSU.) However, if the bottom four teams in the WAC continue to struggle, once can easily imagine that a pollster would give a lower ranking to Fresno, Boise, or Nevada (or whoever) because they believed that they played in a "weak" conference, which could potentially cost them a BCS bid. So like it or not, the "perception" of a conference is important.

The fans don't pick the bowl participants. The WAC is a vey nice mid major conference..We have a nice mix of schools and outstanding athletes in a wide range of sports. The games are competitive and the rivalries are good..I just don't see the sense in worrying about how the conference is perceived by posters on an internet board..

nvspuds Wrote:The fans don't pick the bowl participants. The WAC is a vey nice mid major conference..We have a nice mix of schools and outstanding athletes in a wide range of sports. The games are competitive and the rivalries are good..I just don't see the sense in worrying about how the conference is perceived by posters on an internet board..

Message board posters are a drop in the bucket when it comes to perception.

For one we all need to quit playing weak ass schedules. It looks to me we are starting to play tougher schedules as a WAC unit.


Winning will conclude the rest along with getting fans in their seats.

BarkBoard Wrote:For one we all need to quit playing weak ass schedules. It looks to me we are starting to play tougher schedules as a WAC unit.


Winning will conclude the rest along with getting fans in their seats.

This will only be true if we show up when we play the big name opponents. In Tech's first 5 or 6 games, they've got Nebraska, Clemson, A&M, and Boise all away. We need to win 2 of those games to get "respect" and we better not lay down in the other two. At a minimum, we need to win 1 of those games and make the other three close.

But, for the WAC to get the respect we deserve, we need to get the non-BCS spot in that BCS game. Let's face it folks, CUSA and MWC fans are dillusional for the most part. They actually think they'll be the next BCS conference. It's a joke. It doesn't matter what other fans say, it matters what we do. Go to the games and support your team and demand that your AD's take this seriously (a lot easier said than done...take it from me).

BarkBoard Wrote:For one we all need to quit playing weak ass schedules. It looks to me we are starting to play tougher schedules as a WAC unit.


Winning will conclude the rest along with getting fans in their seats.

"All"? If anything, I think USU's OOC schedule this year was too aggressive. The bottom line is unless USU gets extremely lucky, we're going to go into conference play 0-4, and our fans will think, "Great! Another losing season!" And they may decide that they don't want to show up for our home games in cold weather, and our program continues its losing ways.

I agree, Fresno State and Boise State (and probably Nevada, Hawaii, and Louisiana Tech as well) have no business playing a weak OOC schedule. However, if anything, I think USU, NMSU, SJSU, and Idaho should try to put at least a couple winnable games on their OOC schedules. Give the players and the fans a chance to think that their respective teams might win some games this year. Starting conference play 0-4 every year doesn't do much for the morale of the team or the fans (nor does it do much to help the perception of the WAC, for that matter).

SJSU will only play west of the mississippi teams eventually.

This will lead to stronger games for us.

StanfordAggie Wrote:I agree, Fresno State and Boise State (and probably Nevada, Hawaii, and Louisiana Tech as well) have no business playing a weak OOC schedule. However, if anything, I think USU, NMSU, SJSU, and Idaho should try to put at least a couple winnable games on their OOC schedules. Give the players and the fans a chance to think that their respective teams might win some games this year. Starting conference play 0-4 every year doesn't do much for the morale of the team or the fans (nor does it do much to help the perception of the WAC, for that matter).

We can worry about only sos after we get our stadium expanded and the season ticket holders up. We can't afford the one and none schedules until we have the money to cover our costs and finance the loss of revenue.

StanfordAggie Wrote:I agree, Fresno State and Boise State (and probably Nevada, Hawaii, and Louisiana Tech as well) have no business playing a weak OOC schedule. However, if anything, I think USU, NMSU, SJSU, and Idaho should try to put at least a couple winnable games on their OOC schedules. Give the players and the fans a chance to think that their respective teams might win some games this year. Starting conference play 0-4 every year doesn't do much for the morale of the team or the fans (nor does it do much to help the perception of the WAC, for that matter).

Nevada can only improve their schedule so much since we have to play NSU every year.