http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/5386...e.html.csp

Their chances now are better then they have ever been. The Mtn West is almost forced to take them. Once Utah St goes to the Mtn West, then their blockage of Utah Valley from joining the WAC will no longer exist. The WAC can survive as a non f/b conference by adding Utah Valley, Cal St Bakersfield and Texas Pan American all schools with fairly large enrollments. Add those to Denver, Seattle, Texas Arlington, Boise St and whatever schools are not taken by the Alliance or taken as f/b only members and you will still have a good Western Athletic Conference for basketball and Olympic sports.

Boise St
Cal St Bakersfield
Denver
Idaho (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
New Mexico St (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
Texas Arlington
Texas Pan American
Texas St (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
Seattle
Utah Valley

(04-05-2012 10:56 PM)RUfan03 Wrote:  Their chances now are better then they have ever been. The Mtn West is almost forced to take them. Once Utah St goes to the Mtn West, then their blockage of Utah Valley from joining the WAC will no longer exist. The WAC can survive as a non f/b conference by adding Utah Valley, Cal St Bakersfield and Texas Pan American all schools with fairly large enrollments. Add those to Denver, Seattle, Texas Arlington, Boise St and whatever schools are not taken by the Alliance or taken as f/b only members and you will still have a good Western Athletic Conference for basketball and Olympic sports.

Boise St
Cal St Bakersfield
Denver
Idaho (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
New Mexico St (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
Texas Arlington
Texas Pan American
Texas St (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
Seattle
Utah Valley

the sunbelt isn't going to add any football only members. UNC-charlotte tried too pull that with us. their only plus is their basketball. that also applys to NMSU. idaho just doesn't have any upside at all. even if we were to add a football only it would only be 1 to offset UALR. and even then Idaho and NMSU are way too far outside of our footprint. if we were too add a football only school IMO its gonna be app state.

also i don't think the florida schools separate from one another. they will either go as a pair or not at all. to many advantages of having two florida schools instead of 1. and they know it. remember if they switch conferences that means even the women's bball team is gonna have to travel there. a lot easier if you can play both schools on 1 road swing.

(04-05-2012 10:56 PM)RUfan03 Wrote:  Their chances now are better then they have ever been. The Mtn West is almost forced to take them. Once Utah St goes to the Mtn West, then their blockage of Utah Valley from joining the WAC will no longer exist. The WAC can survive as a non f/b conference by adding Utah Valley, Cal St Bakersfield and Texas Pan American all schools with fairly large enrollments. Add those to Denver, Seattle, Texas Arlington, Boise St and whatever schools are not taken by the Alliance or taken as f/b only members and you will still have a good Western Athletic Conference for basketball and Olympic sports.

Boise St
Cal St Bakersfield
Denver
Idaho (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
New Mexico St (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
Texas Arlington
Texas Pan American
Texas St (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
Seattle
Utah Valley

Some nice sized markets as well with Seattle, Denver, 3 schools in Texas.

If an FBS conference has Texas Pan American your doing it wrong.

just saw tweet from McMurphy:
Boise State and Utah State announce 2-year home/home series in 2014-15

Sorry aggies fans- not the news you were hoping for i'm sure :)

I believe UT-Arlington is in the process of bringing back FB. Maybe they will get lucky and and get snapped up by the Sun Belt without ever playing a down of FCS football if they too can play the "sure no one cares, but we're in a really BIG market!" card.

I seriously doubt UTPA is an option for the WAC.

Utah State would make a great deal of sense for the MWC though.

(04-06-2012 12:00 AM)stAtecamera13 Wrote:  

(04-05-2012 10:56 PM)RUfan03 Wrote:  Their chances now are better then they have ever been. The Mtn West is almost forced to take them. Once Utah St goes to the Mtn West, then their blockage of Utah Valley from joining the WAC will no longer exist. The WAC can survive as a non f/b conference by adding Utah Valley, Cal St Bakersfield and Texas Pan American all schools with fairly large enrollments. Add those to Denver, Seattle, Texas Arlington, Boise St and whatever schools are not taken by the Alliance or taken as f/b only members and you will still have a good Western Athletic Conference for basketball and Olympic sports.

Boise St
Cal St Bakersfield
Denver
Idaho (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
New Mexico St (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
Texas Arlington
Texas Pan American
Texas St (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
Seattle
Utah Valley

the sunbelt isn't going to add any football only members. UNC-charlotte tried too pull that with us. their only plus is their basketball. that also applys to NMSU. idaho just doesn't have any upside at all. even if we were to add a football only it would only be 1 to offset UALR. and even then Idaho and NMSU are way too far outside of our footprint. if we were too add a football only school IMO its gonna be app state.

also i don't think the florida schools separate from one another. they will either go as a pair or not at all. to many advantages of having two florida schools instead of 1. and they know it. remember if they switch conferences that means even the women's bball team is gonna have to travel there. a lot easier if you can play both schools on 1 road swing.

Charlotte fans saying they don't want to move all sports to the Sun Belt does not mean the Charlotte admin. tried that.

Believe it or not, message board posters do not make decisions.

We've been told by an inside source (one that I've honestly never seen be wrong) that we haven't had discussions with the SBC and that we're not interested in the SBC.

Our football coach laughed when someone mentioned it the CBS article that said we'd been offered. He said in a meeting a couple months ago that the CAA (I'm assuming for football only) and CUSA are the only leagues we're trying to be a part of.

Two thoughts come to mind.
1. If the MWC invited USU last year as a replacement for U like BYU asked, a year of musical schools could have been avoided.
2. Does USU getting a MWC invite mean that the MWC anticipates loosing another school to the BE?

(04-07-2012 02:34 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  Two thoughts come to mind.
1. If the MWC invited USU last year as a replacement for U like BYU asked, a year of musical schools could have been avoided.
2. Does USU getting a MWC invite mean that the MWC anticipates loosing another school to the BE?

Not sure about #1. I think BYU was out regardless.

As far as #2- if the MWC remains seperate, they MUST add an all sports school. So, it's not necessarily a requirement there at all.

The MWC and CUSA are remaining as separate conferences. Utah St and SJST will join the MWC to get back to 10 for FB. The alliance didn't pan out because of NCAA bids and other NCAA conflicts. However they may loose Air Force yet. By the time CUSA and the MWC get done picking at the WAC FB carcass and the Sunbelt to get back to where they want to be the WAC will be a BB/ Olympic only conference with a couple of FB independents to help BYU's late season scheduling problems and the Sunbelt will have to reload too. As a matter of fact Benson has already started with Georgia State to get things started with the Sunbelt.
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If Fresno State leaves the MWC, would it make sense to add San Jose State as a football-only member?

Hawaii*/San Jose State*
Nevada/UNLV
Utah State/Wyoming
Air Force/Colorado State
New Mexico/UTSA (or UTEP)

If Air Force leaves, New Mexico could be replaced by UTEP or UTSA (depending on who was taken previously), Rice, Texas State, or North Texas.

(04-08-2012 06:27 AM)panite Wrote:  The MWC and CUSA are remaining as separate conferences. Utah St and SJST will join the MWC to get back to 10 for FB. The alliance didn't pan out because of NCAA bids and other NCAA conflicts. However they may loose Air Force yet. By the time CUSA and the MWC get done picking at the WAC FB carcass and the Sunbelt to get back to where they want to be the WAC will be a BB/ Olympic only conference with a couple of FB independents to help BYU's late season scheduling problems and the Sunbelt will have to reload too. As a matter of fact Benson has already started with Georgia State to get things started with the Sunbelt.
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From the sounds of it both the MWC and CUSA are going to reload to 10 members to start and see if they can push the NCAA into accepting their post season playoff format.

Utah State makes too much sense for the MWC to leave them out of the equation. From what I am reading, and the basic fact that new reports always seem to triumph what was heard a few months ago I would not be surprised if UTSA got the call up as the MWC #10. Thompson has been vocal about the desire to expand into Texas and UTSA is a great start.

CUSA is under pressure to get back into Florida with Florida International with FIU and North Texas has a new football stadium and can help the league reload in the Dallas market. UNT and FIU sound like safe bets to fit into what ultimately might be a 24 team merger.

Down the road when the MWC loses yet another western member they can go after San Jose St as a replacement and when MWC-CUSA fully merge under a 24 team scenario the MWC can horse trade with CUSA for UTEP. I'm not sure if horsetrading with UTEP is necessary or feasible right now for the MWC.

If UTSA has two offers in hand from both the MWC and CUSA I'm pretty sure they would take the MWC offer considering the conference has a stronger overall basketball profile and BCS appearances.

(04-07-2012 02:38 PM)stever20 Wrote:  if the MWC remains seperate, they MUST add an all sports school. So, it's not necessarily a requirement there at all.

And if AFA leaves for Big East football, and there is no full merger, then the MWC needs at least two new schools that play all sports including FB in the MWC. Adding two in that situation would give them 9 for FB and 8 for all other sports, which is not really enough anymore. My guess is that, unless there is a full MWCUSA merger, USU and SJSU are in and at least one other will join them if the AFA departure becomes official. UTEP would get the first offer unless there is a no-poaching agreement that keeps MWC from swiping CUSA schools and vice versa.

(04-06-2012 10:24 AM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  If an FBS conference has Texas Pan American your doing it wrong.

It will no longer be an FBS conference. It will be an non football conference. There are no f/b schools for the WAC to add unless they are going to take over the Big Sky or Southland conferences.

(04-05-2012 10:56 PM)RUfan03 Wrote:  Their chances now are better then they have ever been. The Mtn West is almost forced to take them. Once Utah St goes to the Mtn West, then their blockage of Utah Valley from joining the WAC will no longer exist.

If the MWC wasn't so elitist, they could clear up a lot of issues, and most of all, help themselves.

A conference with the following teams is competitive, and has natural divisional lines, that save costs and promote fan interest:

UTEP, NMSU, UNM, AF, CSU, Wyo, Idaho, USU, UNR, UNLV, SJSU, Fresno St

(04-09-2012 02:35 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  

(04-05-2012 10:56 PM)RUfan03 Wrote:  Their chances now are better then they have ever been. The Mtn West is almost forced to take them. Once Utah St goes to the Mtn West, then their blockage of Utah Valley from joining the WAC will no longer exist.

If the MWC wasn't so elitist, they could clear up a lot of issues, and most of all, help themselves.

A conference with the following teams is competitive, and has natural divisional lines, that save costs and promote fan interest:

UTEP, NMSU, UNM, AF, CSU, Wyo, Idaho, USU, UNR, UNLV, SJSU, Fresno St

Do just a little research and you'll learn that UTEP and NMSU will never reside in the same conference. And, Idaho.....? Come on, look this stuff up before you go spewing this crap!

(04-06-2012 04:40 PM)Niner National Wrote:  

(04-06-2012 12:00 AM)stAtecamera13 Wrote:  

(04-05-2012 10:56 PM)RUfan03 Wrote:  Their chances now are better then they have ever been. The Mtn West is almost forced to take them. Once Utah St goes to the Mtn West, then their blockage of Utah Valley from joining the WAC will no longer exist. The WAC can survive as a non f/b conference by adding Utah Valley, Cal St Bakersfield and Texas Pan American all schools with fairly large enrollments. Add those to Denver, Seattle, Texas Arlington, Boise St and whatever schools are not taken by the Alliance or taken as f/b only members and you will still have a good Western Athletic Conference for basketball and Olympic sports.

Boise St
Cal St Bakersfield
Denver
Idaho (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
New Mexico St (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
Texas Arlington
Texas Pan American
Texas St (Sunbelt member for f/b only)
Seattle
Utah Valley

the sunbelt isn't going to add any football only members. UNC-charlotte tried too pull that with us. their only plus is their basketball. that also applys to NMSU. idaho just doesn't have any upside at all. even if we were to add a football only it would only be 1 to offset UALR. and even then Idaho and NMSU are way too far outside of our footprint. if we were too add a football only school IMO its gonna be app state.

also i don't think the florida schools separate from one another. they will either go as a pair or not at all. to many advantages of having two florida schools instead of 1. and they know it. remember if they switch conferences that means even the women's bball team is gonna have to travel there. a lot easier if you can play both schools on 1 road swing.

Charlotte fans saying they don't want to move all sports to the Sun Belt does not mean the Charlotte admin. tried that.

Believe it or not, message board posters do not make decisions.

We've been told by an inside source (one that I've honestly never seen be wrong) that we haven't had discussions with the SBC and that we're not interested in the SBC.

Our football coach laughed when someone mentioned it the CBS article that said we'd been offered. He said in a meeting a couple months ago that the CAA (I'm assuming for football only) and CUSA are the only leagues we're trying to be a part of.

Sweet. Enjoy FCS.

(04-09-2012 10:29 PM)roundsound Wrote:  

(04-09-2012 02:35 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  

(04-05-2012 10:56 PM)RUfan03 Wrote:  Their chances now are better then they have ever been. The Mtn West is almost forced to take them. Once Utah St goes to the Mtn West, then their blockage of Utah Valley from joining the WAC will no longer exist.

If the MWC wasn't so elitist, they could clear up a lot of issues, and most of all, help themselves.

A conference with the following teams is competitive, and has natural divisional lines, that save costs and promote fan interest:

UTEP, NMSU, UNM, AF, CSU, Wyo, Idaho, USU, UNR, UNLV, SJSU, Fresno St

Do just a little research and you'll learn that UTEP and NMSU will never reside in the same conference. And, Idaho.....? Come on, look this stuff up before you go spewing this crap!

He's a MAC homer; they typically don't get modern conference realignment. They think every conference should follow the MAC model and think a conference is too spread out if it doesn't include 6 schools from one state and 3 more from a neighboring state.