(01-01-2021 11:57 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  

(01-01-2021 10:44 PM)SDHornet Wrote:  

(01-01-2021 10:19 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Are you seriously conflating the AAC and WCC membership with the WAC membership? Those arent the same animals--not even close. Last year the AAC was the 7th strongest basketball conference and the WCC was the 9th strongest conference. The WAC was the 27th ranked conference (out of 32). Boise is located within the current WAC footprint. Boise is not in the AAC's footprint and is pretty far from 7 of the 10 WCC members. What is fantastic get for the WAC might not be as great a deal for the WCC or AAC. That said--as I pointed ut before----I can see the WCC adding them if they decide the institutional fit issue isnt a big concern for one member. Boise would be a way to thicken up the top of the conference.

Nope, just saying if the Boise Oly's are as awesome as you are claiming them to be then the AAC taking them to get their FB wouldn't be the sticking point that it is.

My point regarding Boise to the WAC is that the WAC doesn't need them as much as you want to believe given the pending TX4/SUU adds. Sure they'd help WAC hoops, but Boise isn't going to turn the WAC into a 2 bid league, and the WAC is working a different angle with FB adds.

I thought you guys agreed to disagree. LOL.

I get where Attackcoog is coming from but I’m with SDHornet on this one. Let’s assume for a moment that the WAC is successful in adding the Texas 4 and SUU to increase membership to 14 and is eying one last potential addition to replace Chicago State. Let’s further assume that the candidates are Boise State for Olympic sports only and West Texas A&M for all sports.

With Boise State you get an existing D1 program with a national brand that’s had some good hoops seasons historically but hasn’t been to the Dance since 2015 and has never won an NCAA tournament game. It’s also a program that just killed baseball.

With West Texas A&M you get a D2 move-up, but one that expands your newly-formed FCS football conference from 7 to 8 teams, increasing stability and making scheduling easier. You also pick up a hoops program that made it to the D2 final four in 2018 and elite eight in 2019 and was 32-1 and ranked third nationally when play was suspended in 2020. Finally you add a baseball program that had earned six consecutive berths in the D2 regionals from 2014 to 2019 and was on track for a seventh in 2020.

Another advantage of going with West Texas A&M is that half of your conference members will be in Texas and can share a very travel-friendly eastern division for Olympic sports. Also it keeps NMSU and SFA in separate divisions, reducing opportunities for your two best basketball programs to beat up on each other and potentially eliminate each other from NCAA at-large bid consideration prior to the conference tournament.

In that specific scenario the better choice IMHO is clearly West Texas A&M.