just put all the non AQ schools in one big conference and let them fight it out

oh wait, they're going to do that

Add Utah St, San Jose St, Idaho, New Mexico State and Denver and it would make a nice 12 team league.

Mountain Division
Colorado State
Hawaii/Denver
New Mexico
New Mexico State
Utah State
Wyoming

Pacific Division
Fresno State
Idaho
Nevada
San Diego State
San Jose State
UNLV

(11-04-2011 11:21 AM)War Torn Ruston Wrote:   Excellent. And since it makes sense it probably will not happen this way.

Yup. That's why this never got done.

Pacific:

Boise State
EWU*
Fresno State
Hawaii/Gonzaga (Denver, if Gonzaga can't be persuaded)
Nevada
San Diego State
UNLV

Mountain:

Colorado State
Houston*
New Mexico
SMU*
Utah State*
UTEP*
Wyoming

That conference given a few years to grow and to get facilities up to date, would have a good shot at AQ. It would arguably be a better basketball conference than the PAC with New Mexico, Utah State, UTEP, UNLV, and San Diego State.

Plus we would get to see EWU and BSU in a "Battle of the Turfs".

Once Boise and BUY sign with the BE, what is the practical difference between the MWC and the WAC? None that I can see.

I really don't think it was a coincidence that the Alliance was announced just as the Big East got serious on expansion and made it clear they were going to 12 football schools. Yes it was partially an attempt to hold off the Big East, but I think the leaders of both conferences would have rightly concluded that was a long shot.

With that in mind, I think the Alliance goes ahead. The ideal number in such a set-up for football is probably 9 so that they can have round robin in-division, 8 conference games (rather than more or less), and essentially 2 separate conferences united by a CCG game. That is only going to mean 1 or 2 additions total for the Mountain West and Conference USA (at least 1 for the Mountain West, possibly a 2nd or a 1st for Conference USA depending on the Big East's last pick).

MWC is in better shape to rebuild with disaray WAC & depleted C-USA west
MWC wanted to hit 18, they would reach Memphis
C-USA could lose more schools, I think alliance is done

(11-04-2011 01:31 PM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  Add Utah St, San Jose St, Idaho, New Mexico State and Denver and it would make a nice 12 team league.

Mountain Division
Colorado State
Hawaii/Denver
New Mexico
New Mexico State
Utah State
Wyoming

Pacific Division
Fresno State
Idaho
Nevada
San Diego State
San Jose State
UNLV

Hawaii in the Mountain Division?? Uh, no. Hawaii in the Pacific Division. UTEP or North Texas or UTSA in the Mountain Division.

Hawaii can be paired with Seattle U. for non-football sports. That would get the MWC into a big new market with no NBA competition. Teams like SDSU, New Mexico, UNLV and Utah State would draw good crowds to Key Arena. Also Seattle plays baseball and softball whereas Denver does not.

As the WAC is being pulled apart watch as it becomes the catch all refugee camp for FCS teams wanting to move up... even eastern ones. It's their only way to break into the big leagues.

The MWC will not take all of the WAC teams and, for the alliance to really work as mentioned above, neither the MWC nor CUSA can expand beyond 10. I think we will see the MWC add only SJSU and USU, plus a possible basketball FCS school with potential to move up later, while CUSA takes North Texas to keep UTEP, Tulsa, and Rice happy.

The WAC will survive to reconstitute itself yet again. Lamar will probably be added right away, along with Utah Valley, which will start football in very quick order because that is what it will take to get the invite. That buys more time to beg Montana and Montana State to finally upgrade. UT-Arlington is expected to eventually add football too.