This would be a win-win for everyone involved, IMO.

http://www.mwcboard.com/www/forums/index...entry44779[/url]

No one wants us. The only central time zone team in the WAC. :sorry:

LRdawg Wrote:No one wants us. The only central time zone team in the WAC. :sorry:

To be quite honest, I'm glad that La Tech is in the WAC. It's a theoretical idea. Nothing personal. I hope that La Tech can stay in the WAC for the long term... Seems like I've said this before.

Anyhow, we all know that this idea will probably never work out. Just for the record, I love the WAC and Utah St fans love it here.

I'm glad that my school is associated with institutions like Fresno St, Nevada, Hawaii, BSU, Utah St, etc. The WAC is growing and each of our shool have a great product to contribute to our conference. Recently, the WAC has offered some entertaining matchup that draws interest from fans outside of our conf such as FSU/BSU football and Nevada/USU in basketball. Stability will come and growth will happen. My friends finally know who we are now, a couple years back none of them could name any schools in the WAC.

As much I love Tech being in the WAC, our logical next step should be getting in CUSA. Long term, we will hold the WAC back being the non-western school in the conference. I hope no western schools leave the WAC, it's a very comptetive league.

What do you do on the minor sports? Consolidate all 18 teams and have a (potentially) 18-team tournament?

I imagine the baseball people would be happy for such a thing.

And women's gymnastics.

The only way that your proposal of an 18/19 team western conference of an upper and lower division should work is with automatic elevation/relegation. The bottom two teams of the upper division should be relegated to the lower division while the top two teams of the lower division should be elevated to the upper division each year. Otherwise you lock in forever the standings that prevail this year. As we know, rankings and performance (thankfully) are fluid. The opportunity to elevate and, conversely, the threat of relegation would be huge incentives for all teams to do well.

USU78 Wrote:What do you do on the minor sports? Consolidate all 18 teams and have a (potentially) 18-team tournament?

I imagine the baseball people would be happy for such a thing.

And women's gymnastics.

Well I'm sure they could be worked out, assuming that the configuration could get as much revenue that I believe it could get. For example, women's and men's basketball suffers all ready from the current conference configuration based on football.

Other than that, I'd have to compile the sports that each team competes in and figure out what the best configuration would be. There are a lot of sports that every school doesn't compete in, when it comes to minor sports. Therefore, your number of participants wouldn't be 18 schools. You may have a 16 team conference in some sports.

Another thing to consider. You mention gymnastics. Gymnastics has always been a sport that has been in limbo with affiliate members etc. They'd finally have enough teams, without affiliates, to compete with exclusively. I'm sure that in just about every sport you'd have to leave OOC free in your schedule.

IMO, no school would be willing to accept being put in a second tier, it is the hope of every school that this could be the year of the big turnaround. Plus being grouped in formally in the lower tier could destroy future recruiting. Any college team wants to be considered an equal in their conference, even if in the eyes of others they are not. Just my two cents.

nwp Wrote:IMO, no school would be willing to accept being put in a second tier, it is the hope of every school that this could be the year of the big turnaround. Plus being grouped in formally in the lower tier could destroy future recruiting. Any college team wants to be considered an equal in their conference, even if in the eyes of others they are not. Just my two cents.

A school might be willing to bite the bullet and be called lower tier if they are getting money from the upper tier but no upper tier team is going to want to let that money go to those that do nothing for it. Teams would be willing to take second tier status if they knew they were getting the same money and had the same chance to break into the upper tier.

I think you have way too much time on your hands...

ejm - You put a lot of thought into this concept, but I think you're going to find that Hawaii wants nothing to do with the MWC.

Like I mentioned before, the WAC has 9 games with Pac-10 teams this year. The MWC only has 2. And next year, the Pac-10 joins us on ESPN.
Our destiny is intertwined with the Pac-10 and I think that's the conference that the WAC is "naturally" aligning itself with.

We're already a good conference, and we don't need anything from the MWC.

With La. Tech, they're outside of the Pac-10 footprint...but they're square in the middle of the SEC and Big 12. They're a great school to carry the WAC flag against those conferences and display our logo in the South and East. La. Tech "really" is good for the WAC.

I think we should sit back and let 2006 play itself out. I think we're going to be pleased with the road the WAC is finally on.

jediwarrior Wrote:ejm - You put a lot of thought into this concept, but I think you're going to find that Hawaii wants nothing to do with the MWC.

Like I mentioned before, the WAC has 9 games with Pac-10 teams this year. The MWC only has 2. And next year, the Pac-10 joins us on ESPN.
Our destiny is intertwined with the Pac-10 and I think that's the conference that the WAC is "naturally" aligning itself with.

We're already a good conference, and we don't need anything from the MWC.

With La. Tech, they're outside of the Pac-10 footprint...but they're square in the middle of the SEC and Big 12. They're a great school to carry the WAC flag against those conferences and display our logo in the South and East. La. Tech "really" is good for the WAC.

I think we should sit back and let 2006 play itself out. I think we're going to be pleased with the road the WAC is finally on.

I agree, for the most part, with you jedi. However, I think I share the same concerns that most other WAC fans share. Those concerns are:
#1 Can La Tech survive in the WAC with all of the travel that they do. Many WAC fans have admitted that C-USA would be a better fit.
#2 Will Fresno St and Boise St ever stop drooling over the MWC? Their search for greener pastures gives the WAC a sense of instability.
It also gives the MWC a perception that it is a better conference than the WAC, which I don't really agree with.

If we could ever resolve those two concerns, I wouldn't have a single complaint about the current college athletic landscape (well except for the BCS, but that is another story).

I know Boise St fans would say that Utah St and NMSU would jump at the chance to join the goats, but I hope that those two schools have out grown that need.

Now that the MWC has unleashed its tv coverage, time will tell if it is favorable to them or not. If it is, they're going to have a leg up on us and that leg up will cause more envy from WAC schools. I hope our own success will not lead us to that point.

18 team conference? Been there. Lived that.

It would work great until the 8 schools which happen to be "hot" at any given moment decide that they can get the same TV contract without the 9 bottom feeders in the conference and then stab the rest in the back.

WAC_FAN Wrote:It would work great until the 8 schools which happen to be "hot" at any given moment decide that they can get the same TV contract without the 9 bottom feeders in the conference and then stab the rest in the back.

Indeed. When Utah and BYU are involved, you can never, and I repeat never rest. An eternally dissatisfied Fresno St. is bad enough. Having eternally dissatisfied Utah and BYU, especially the latter, would be Hell on Wheels.

ejm - I agree with you about Tech. We all know that Tech will represent the WAC well while they're here. I'm just hoping things work out for them...whether it be in the WAC or C-USA.

With Boise and Fresno...I wouldn't worry about them too much. Hawaii has been in the WAC a long time, and the one thing that you realize is that the WAC is going to keep on rolling no matter who's in the conference. The WAC lost teams to the Pac-10, the MWC, and C-USA...

...and the WAC is actually becoming a better conference because of it.

I mentioned all the positives that I could see in the year 2006...and they're a big deal. All of the 'SERIOUS' conferences are on national TV every week during football season. And the WAC is getting to that point.

I'm excited to watch 2006 and 07 play itself out. I think the WAC is going to reap a lot of benefits...

jediwarrior Wrote:ejm - I agree with you about Tech. We all know that Tech will represent the WAC well while they're here. I'm just hoping things work out for them...whether it be in the WAC or C-USA.

With Boise and Fresno...I wouldn't worry about them too much. Hawaii has been in the WAC a long time, and the one thing that you realize is that the WAC is going to keep on rolling no matter who's in the conference. The WAC lost teams to the Pac-10, the MWC, and C-USA...

...and the WAC is actually becoming a better conference because of it.

I mentioned all the positives that I could see in the year 2006...and they're a big deal. All of the 'SERIOUS' conferences are on national TV every week during football season. And the WAC is getting to that point.

I'm excited to watch 2006 and 07 play itself out. I think the WAC is going to reap a lot of benefits...

I'm looking forward to seeing the WAC play itself out in 2006 also, but Utah St won't be in last place in football, mark my words. ;-)

I think LA Tech will end up in CUSA, if the BE adds 1 team from CUSA.

BE needs a 9th football member due do un balanced home/away schedules.