nvspuds Wrote:Neville Chamberlain?? I am not relying on anything the MWC does to improve or hurt the WAC..The WAC has everything in place to succeed and it is entirely up to the WAC, not the MWC, to rise or fall.
Do you honestly think that if the CSTV works out, ESPN will shuffle off without a fight? Do you honestly think that WAC schools will stop trying to improve their product.
You are terrified of the MWC and what they might or might not do but you have absolutely zero faith in the WAC to compete..Tell that to Boise..Are they laying down and taking whatever scraps are left? Hardly.
I know you took it personally when the MWC schools left you behind but is has made you into a paranoid about their massive power. The MWC is a non BCS conference with a risky but fairly lucrative tv deal..They are not the Pac 10..
They do not control the fate of the WAC..
I realize it is a fruitless wish but just once I would like to see a positive comment from you about the league that has provided Fresno with a platform for national recognition.
Tough up dude..
As I've read today's Yoda-grams, I can't decide whether to laugh or cry, whether I'm reading farce or tragedy.
Others have already stated that if the MWC wanted to kill the WAC, it could do so in one hour, with 1-3 phone calls, to the presidents of BSU, Nevada and FSU, asking them to join our clambake. Voila, the WAC is instantly reduced to Sun Belt West, assuming it even survives.
Fact: It's in the MWC's best interest to see that the WAC survives because both conferences need each other, for scheduling interconference games. That's not to say that we don't compete, any more than the Big-12 and Big-10 don't compete for network ratings, poll positions and bowl contracts. Not all competition is designed to be zero sum, aka, if one side wins the other side inevitably loses.
Rather, this is about enlarging the pie for everyone on the outside. Anyone who can't see that in CSTV is indulging in myopia, envy or self pity, if I may be a bit blunt. If CSTV succeeds, everyone wins because ESPN needs some competition, for all our sakes. Do you think for one minute that if CSTV had been in business for several years that ESPN would have offered the WAC only $1 million a year? That's a complete insult to the conference because you're better than that. However, in a monopolistic, plantation environment, what can anyone do but sign on the dotted line?
Next fact: Several years ago, someone asked Craig Thompson what his three top goals were. He replied (and I quote): "The BCS, the BCS, the BCS." Folks, that's the real competition, not this WAC vs. MWC vs. CUSA vs. MAC stuff. The MWC's main focus has been to secure a BcS autoinvite, period. Whether the conference succeeds remains to be seen. However, it's not about gutting or pillaging the WAC. That's part of the CSTV deal: An attempt to break through ESPN's "glass ceiling" that seems to say to the have nots, "this much and no more" (both compensation and positioning viz a viz the big boys).
Frankly, BYU isn't interesting in "stealing" FSU or other WAC recruits, as Yoda suggested elsewhere. Instead, BYU wants to steal Pac-10 or Big-12 (or even an occasional SEC) recruits, as the current list of 19 (and counting) commitments for next year illustrates. BYU doesn't schedule home and home with the big boys for body bag purposes or feelings of inferiority (or pity on their part). Rather, it plays the Notre Dames, USCs and Florida States because there's mutual respect and interest, coupled with the intention of joining their club someday. BYU didn't build its indoor practice facility and student athlete center so it could try to have the best non-BcS infrastructure. It did that so it could compete directly with the BcS schools. Ditto the rest of the MWC, which is one of the things I absolutely love about the conference: The shared perspective, vision and commitment. Has anyone seen the bucks that Wyoming and TCU are currently investing, just to name two? We're not doing it to crush the WAC. We're doing it to persuade BcS quality recruits to come to the MWC and better position the conference for a BcS invite.
Instead of laughing or crying, perhaps what I need to do -- for all of those who see the MWC as a big bogey man that's conspiring to crush the rest of the non-BcS leagues -- is share a Russian fairy tale I heard many years ago. Whether it actually originated in Russia, I don't know, though that doesn't diminish its relevance:
A peasant was plowing in a field and discovered a lamp. While rubbing it to get it clean, out popped a genie, who told him he could have one wish. The peasant's response was swift and certain: "My neighbor has a goat, and I don't. Kill my neighbor's goat."
Yoda, I don't what's happened to you of late. It's like you've adopted the adage "it's darkest just before the lights go completely out." Get your old pragmatic, insightful self out of its current blue funk.