(09-12-2020 01:16 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  

(09-12-2020 12:45 PM)Hilldog Wrote:  

(09-11-2020 06:09 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  

(09-11-2020 03:46 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  

(09-11-2020 03:22 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  Not a fair question. No school that turns down a WAC offer is going to state on the record that Chicago State's membership in the conference had an impact on their decision. But anyone who follows conference realignment knows that key considerations for most schools evaluating a move include the geographic proximity and institutional compatibility of other schools in the destination conference. When it comes to WAC recruitment of new members in the western U.S., Chicago State is an impediment with respect to both of these factors.

UMKC, Cal Baptist, Dixie State, and Tarleton State all joined after Chicago State was added. Who has turned down a WAC offer?

Two that were reported publicly in 2018 are Colorado Mesa and Metropolitan State University-Denver. Also I have no doubt that the WAC took a run at UC San Diego after the Tritons were rejected by the Big West in 2017, but the Tritons elected to hold out for the Big West.

UCSD and the Big West invitation in 2017 was more like the chicken or the egg. There was no doubt the Big West wanted UCSD. But, UCSD students still hadn't voted to move to D1 and without the students' money, UCSD wasn't moving to D1. The BW wasn't going to invite a school hoping their students was going to vote to move to D1. If UCSD student had voted to move to D1 before 2017, UCSD would have been in the Big West already. The WAC did talk to UCSD to gauge interest, but UCSD was very clear if they were going to D1, it would be the Big West.

Another issue was the UC/CSU balance of power in the BWC. The BWC could not simply add UC San Diego without confirming a CSU counterpart to add in tandem. Once the BWC knew Cal State Bakersfield was interested in membership and there was not too much objection from the conference membership, the Commissioner moved forward with the dual invite. As a condition both needed to accept the invite simultaneously. Individually neither could get in the BWC.

That's BS! The Big West has known about Bakersfield's interest ever since Bakersfield went D1. The Big West had 3 CSU's since the first wave of conference expansion in 96- Fullerton, Long Beach & Cal Poly-who moved up. There were only 2 UC's Irvine and Santa Barbara. Around 2001 Northridge and Riverside came in, making it 4 CSU's to 3 UC's. When Davis came in, it wasn't about balancing the number of UC's to CSU's, it was the fact that Davis would be a good addition to the conference.

And if for some reason Bakersfield didn't accept, the Big West has always wanted to get into the San Diego market. They would have only added UCSD. It wasn't a package deal.