(03-07-2025 10:11 AM)BlueDragon Wrote:  Rasputin still isn't dead yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZXNaV96AZs

Oral Roberts?

Strangely enough Utah Valley has not accepted the Invite of the Big West. Was this a ploy to rid the conference of the outlier Cal Baptist who the Big West had reservations about?

It isn't strange. No one wants the focus of a top team in conference to be on where their future home is. Likely announcements will be made after the conference tournament.

(03-07-2025 01:44 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  

(03-07-2025 10:11 AM)BlueDragon Wrote:  Rasputin still isn't dead yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZXNaV96AZs

Oral Roberts?

Strangely enough Utah Valley has not accepted the Invite of the Big West. Was this a ploy to rid the conference of the outlier Cal Baptist who the Big West had reservations about?

It isn't strange. No one wants the focus of a top team in conference to be on where their future home is. Likely announcements will be made after the conference tournament.

Even Matt said that the preference for any official announcements was for after the conference tournament since UVU has a good chance to win the WAC

It would be interesting to see if the WAC poached a couple from the Summit and MVC, although that would be the longer shot than the Summit taking at least one and the others going elsewhere. Stranger things have happened, but that would mean that lots of planning had to have been taking place behind the scenes with new leadership being put into place to help attract. With Lassiter taking Thornton's place on the NCAA Tourney Committee, he does have a lot of connections to help make things happen. Still, that would be a tall order.

So far, that is one guy who speculates more than he has sources that has said that. With that in mind, the WAC has been dead more than once.

If ACU, UTA, ORU, SUU, UT, Denver and one more school (preferably one on each end) with a common background can stay together, that is the bones of a solid conference. Sorry Tarleton, but the ones listed don't have FBS aspirations.

But what school with geographic convenience would bail on the MVC for the WAC? I can't see one.

(03-07-2025 11:55 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  So far, that is one guy who speculates more than he has sources that has said that. With that in mind, the WAC has been dead more than once.

If ACU, UTA, ORU, SUU, UT, Denver and one more school (preferably one on each end) with a common background can stay together, that is the bones of a solid conference. Sorry Tarleton, but the ones listed don't have FBS aspirations.

But what school with geographic convenience would bail on the MVC for the WAC? I can't see one.

I could possibly see someone like Drake or Belmont. The problem would be their sports like Men's soccer or women's rowing, etc...

(03-08-2025 10:32 PM)Outsider Wrote:  

(03-07-2025 11:55 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  So far, that is one guy who speculates more than he has sources that has said that. With that in mind, the WAC has been dead more than once.

If ACU, UTA, ORU, SUU, UT, Denver and one more school (preferably one on each end) with a common background can stay together, that is the bones of a solid conference. Sorry Tarleton, but the ones listed don't have FBS aspirations.

But what school with geographic convenience would bail on the MVC for the WAC? I can't see one.

I could possibly see someone like Drake or Belmont. The problem would be their sports like Men's soccer or women's rowing, etc...

Having been in the OVC with Belmont, I don't see them moving from the MVC. That was their goal and is within the area they recruit students.

The WAC needs to target ORU Denver UCA UALR and throw in UCO and Angelo St as well.

(03-09-2025 05:12 PM)Spolovilo4EVER Wrote:  The WAC needs to target ORU Denver UCA UALR and throw in UCO and Angelo St as well.

I don't think anyone would argue those. I think keeping the UAC going would be a want for both the WAC and the ASUN.

Problem with Denver, in any conference, is there's not much that is drivable. The true expense is airfare. A bus is cheaper, obviously, but the cost of a plane is mostly in the landing and takeoff. Denver to the Dakotas is less than two hours on a drive. The WAC doesn't save them money. What they could do is avoid the snowy North Central for the cold Utah and balmy Southwest.

Oral Roberts is in the same boat.

UCA and Little Rock could benefit by the geographic convenience and playing in the same conference for meaningful games. They don't need the WAC for that. Not sure the two conferences of the two schools want the other and vice versa. That could be the best selling point.

Now those schools have to factor the instability of the conference. Tarleton will leave, and no one faults them for it. UVU would be a fool to refuse the stable Big West. CBU has rumored to accepted already. The remaining schools are jittery.

If they can find a stable conference with smaller numbers, everyone wins. I just don't think that today's NCAA has that environment outside a few exceptions.

What the officials and several of the larger D2 schools are that the recent adds to D2 were nothing but small schools which is changing the image of D2 where it is not the same anymore. It is a reason why they are looking to D1. Rumors was Central Missouri wants to move up. Midwestern State's leaders also expressed that their goal is D1. Lone Star is getting bloated in D2 as Texas A&M-Texarkana said they are looking to join D2, plus we have the four orphan D3 Texas schools with football might move up. Add 5 more schools to Lone Star and you would get over 20 schools with more mouths to feed with little money coming into the conference.

(03-09-2025 06:59 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Problem with Denver, in any conference, is there's not much that is drivable. The true expense is airfare. A bus is cheaper, obviously, but the cost of a plane is mostly in the landing and takeoff. Denver to the Dakotas is less than two hours on a drive. The WAC doesn't save them money. What they could do is avoid the snowy North Central for the cold Utah and balmy Southwest.

Oral Roberts is in the same boat.

UCA and Little Rock could benefit by the geographic convenience and playing in the same conference for meaningful games. They don't need the WAC for that. Not sure the two conferences of the two schools want the other and vice versa. That could be the best selling point.

Now those schools have to factor the instability of the conference. Tarleton will leave, and no one faults them for it. UVU would be a fool to refuse the stable Big West. CBU has rumored to accepted already. The remaining schools are jittery.

If they can find a stable conference with smaller numbers, everyone wins. I just don't think that today's NCAA has that environment outside a few exceptions.

Denver to Fargo is a 2 hour drive?

I was curious about all the conferences we have been discussing and did a quick comparison. Now, this is just based on Men's basketball, so certainly not comprehensive. You can check my math, but I basically went to the 2025 NET Men's Basketball Rankings and then the conferences and calculated the mean for each of the conferences we have generally been discussing. Below is the result based on the mean ranking of the men's basketball teams in their conference.

1. WCC @ 149.36
2. MVC @ 157
3. BW @ 185.55
4. WAC @ 211.56
5. Summit @ 214. 89
6. SLC @ 228.92
7. ASUN @ 239.67

The mean ranking for these 7 conferences is 197.57. How much would that change if we compared all comparable Olympic sports? I think the WAC would still be in the middle somewhere, with the Summit and ASUN just below. I could be wrong. Would the WCC and BW have as big an advantage? I'm not really sure. Of course, there are a ton of more variables, but it was a quick and fun exercise.

By the way, Lipscomb punched their ticket to the NCAA for the ASUN. They have long been a decent program. They beat out newcomer UNA for the championship.

(03-11-2025 08:47 AM)WestTexas409 Wrote:  

(03-09-2025 06:59 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Problem with Denver, in any conference, is there's not much that is drivable. The true expense is airfare. A bus is cheaper, obviously, but the cost of a plane is mostly in the landing and takeoff. Denver to the Dakotas is less than two hours on a drive. The WAC doesn't save them money. What they could do is avoid the snowy North Central for the cold Utah and balmy Southwest.

Oral Roberts is in the same boat.

UCA and Little Rock could benefit by the geographic convenience and playing in the same conference for meaningful games. They don't need the WAC for that. Not sure the two conferences of the two schools want the other and vice versa. That could be the best selling point.

Now those schools have to factor the instability of the conference. Tarleton will leave, and no one faults them for it. UVU would be a fool to refuse the stable Big West. CBU has rumored to accepted already. The remaining schools are jittery.

If they can find a stable conference with smaller numbers, everyone wins. I just don't think that today's NCAA has that environment outside a few exceptions.

Denver to Fargo is a 2 hour drive?

Less than two hours longer than to the Utah schools.

(03-12-2025 02:29 AM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  

(03-11-2025 08:47 AM)WestTexas409 Wrote:  

(03-09-2025 06:59 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Problem with Denver, in any conference, is there's not much that is drivable. The true expense is airfare. A bus is cheaper, obviously, but the cost of a plane is mostly in the landing and takeoff. Denver to the Dakotas is less than two hours on a drive. The WAC doesn't save them money. What they could do is avoid the snowy North Central for the cold Utah and balmy Southwest.

Oral Roberts is in the same boat.

UCA and Little Rock could benefit by the geographic convenience and playing in the same conference for meaningful games. They don't need the WAC for that. Not sure the two conferences of the two schools want the other and vice versa. That could be the best selling point.

Now those schools have to factor the instability of the conference. Tarleton will leave, and no one faults them for it. UVU would be a fool to refuse the stable Big West. CBU has rumored to accepted already. The remaining schools are jittery.

If they can find a stable conference with smaller numbers, everyone wins. I just don't think that today's NCAA has that environment outside a few exceptions.

Denver to Fargo is a 2 hour drive?

Less than two hours longer than to the Utah schools.

Wut?
I can’t tell if you’re doing a bit or if these are your actual lucid thoughts.

UVU will only go to the Big West as a last resort. Being an outlier is not attractive. Utah schools I believe are a pkg deal. I have heard this from several reputable folks.

(03-12-2025 10:56 AM)BlueDragon Wrote:  UVU will only go to the Big West as a last resort. Being an outlier is not attractive. Utah schools I believe are a pkg deal. I have heard this from several reputable folks.

How are they an outlier? It takes 18 hours to drive from UVU to Tarleton and 10 hours to drive to Long Beach St.

(03-12-2025 12:07 PM)UIWElite Wrote:  

(03-12-2025 10:56 AM)BlueDragon Wrote:  UVU will only go to the Big West as a last resort. Being an outlier is not attractive. Utah schools I believe are a pkg deal. I have heard this from several reputable folks.

How are they an outlier? It takes 18 hours to drive from UVU to Tarleton and 10 hours to drive to Long Beach St.

You obviously don’t understand the dynamics of how California views Utah and they would be the only school outside of California

So now we have a full time commissioner

https://wacsports.com/news/2025/3/12/gen...ioner.aspx

Our interim is now full time.

(03-12-2025 07:08 PM)TexanFan Wrote:  So now we have a full time commissioner

https://wacsports.com/news/2025/3/12/gen...ioner.aspx

Our interim is now full time.

Interesting.