(01-05-2021 03:34 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(01-05-2021 03:03 PM)SMUstang Wrote:  

(01-05-2021 02:54 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(01-05-2021 02:04 AM)jedclampett Wrote:  

(01-04-2021 06:58 AM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  If Boise is purposely overlooking or resisting conferences like the WAC, Big Sky, or even Summit, I think it's done to "protect its brand" with respect to basketball and the greater athletic department.

Consider this, though:

There is a lot more to the value of a conference than a conference's brand or prestige, with respect to basketball, in particular.

The best situation for a BB school, in many respects, is having a good chance to make the NCAA tournament.

One of the reasons why Gonzaga has had the success they've had is that they've become a major national brand, due to having been the top team in the WCC and have thus gotten an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament for so many seasons.

If Boise State were to join the Big Sky, they would have a yellow brick road to the NCAA most seasons. They would, thus, have a great opportunity to build their basketball "brand," the same way that Gonzaga did, and to become the Gonzaga of the Big Sky Conference.

After making the NCAA tournament 2 or 3 years in a row, Boise would be considered a perennial NCAA team, practically overnight, and their recruiting would improve by leaps and bounds, as a consequence.

Gonzaga isn't the only example of a team that became a national power school by becoming the dominant team in their conference. Other examples have included Butler, Creighton, Dayton, UMass, Northern Iowa, Temple, Wichita State, Xavier, and recently, San Diego State.

That is an extremely overbroad definition of "national power". By that definition there would be close to 100 men's basketball teams in Division I that could call themselves a national power.

Also, the idea that a football-first athletic department should downgrade its other sports just to take the chance that they could become more of a basketball power is an odd idea. Try applying it to other programs. Do you think UCF should be a football-only member of the AAC and move its other sports to the A-Sun, just because it might be easier to win that conference in basketball? If you don't think that, then you also don't really believe that Boise State should play basketball in the WAC or Big Sky.

Boise State basketball is too good for the WAC or Big Sky and probably also for the Big West. The only conference good enough is the WCC and they are not about to take Boise State for a lot of reasons. So Boise State either stays in the MWC or the American has to offer them a full membership.

The Mt West is the best option out West for Boise St except for the PAC but that’s not happening.

In the end it will come down to dollars and cents. And the conference commissioner and conference presidents will decide.