I posted this on the WAC board so I thought I would post here to see the reaction, if any.

I've been bored this week so I decided to play the Conference Expansion game. What if the PAC-10 added BYU and Utah (or any two teams from the WAC or MWC)? Would it make sense to merge the MWC and WAC teams back together again? It would look something like this:

THE NEW WAC-14 ...say goodbye to the MWC

-Air Force
-Colorado St.
-Boise St.
-Idaho
-New Mexico
-New Mexico St.
-Wyoming

-Hawaii
-Fresno St.
-SDSU
-SJSU
-Utah St.
-UNLV
-Nevada

I think 14 is the magic number (balanced home and away games within division). I think this would be an awesome conference. Plenty of natural rivalries easy travel for fans and great for TV. Sorry LA tech...Sunbelt would be your new home. TCU heads back home to CUSA. IMO this would become the best non-bcs conference.

THE NEW SUNBELT-9

-FIU
-FAU
-LA Tech
-LA Monroe
-LA La
-N. Texas
-AK State
-WKU
-MTSU

LA Tech gets into a more regional conference, WKU finds a home, plus provides a balanced 4home 4away schedule.


THE NEW CUSA-14

-Houston
-Rice
-SMU
-UTEP
-TCU
-Tulsa
-Tulane

-East Carolina
-Memphis
-Central Fla.
-UAB
-Troy
-Marshall
-Southern Miss

Not a bad conference either. Don't know if TCU would want back in or not...I think Troy would jump at the chance to move up.

Anyway, I just wanted to stir the pot and see if anyone had any comments.

I think TCU would definitely look to go back to C-USA if Utah and BYU were to be invited to the Pac 10, but the Pac 10 has never been too jumpy about adding teams. I am not sure if BYU would be accepted by the Pac 10 because of some of their athletic practices, like not playing on Sundays. BYU is able to get away with that in conferences where they are the most powerful athletic department, but the Pac 10 regularly plays basketball TV games on Sunday afternoon. Plus baseball is traditionally Friday-Sunday, MWC teams play Thursday-Saturday when they face BYU home or away. Now the question is if whether BYU would play on Sundays for the opportunity to join a BCS conference, they don't seem to have a problem with NFL players playing on Sunday, NBA players playing on Sunday, PGA golfers, ect....

Another concern for BYU is academics, not that they are not a great academic school. But that they have much more of a undergraduate focus than the Pac 10 schools. I know that is something that the PAC 10 prides themselves on. Utah while ranking lower than BYU in US News (which by no means is perfect, or close to it) is a much more comprehensive doctoral university than BYU. Realistically if UNLV was a better school that would probably be more of what the PAC 10 would add as a major state research university.

Simply put, BYU and Utah leaving the MWC could be the worst possible thing to happen to the MWC (similar to Memphis, UCF, and ECU leaving C-USA) and I do think you would see some sort of MWC and WAC merger.

with the Pac 10 rule requiring 100% approval for expansion ... it is very unlikely to happen.

when the money is right, Pac-10 will get 10-0 vote

templefootballfan Wrote:when the money is right, Pac-10 will get 10-0 vote

I don't see Stanford ever voting to expand...