ODU's coach Bobby Wilder called out the JMU admin (in a slightly polite manner) for their lack of a move this past off-season. He said something at CAA Media day like, "Everyone thought that when you build a big stadium expansion like JMU did, that they must be having something planned, must be having aspirations. ODU's admin was disappointed to hear that they weren't willing to work with us to join a conference together".

Scott Bilo just tweeted:

Quote:Answer for #WAC football in 2013: porbably not going to happen. May come back in 2014 or 15, accoring to Jeff Hurd.

(07-26-2012 01:17 PM)knucklehead Wrote:  Scott Bilo just tweeted:

Quote:Answer for #WAC football in 2013: porbably not going to happen. May come back in 2014 or 15, accoring to Jeff Hurd.

well no crap... no one is holding their breath for 2013 football. I know that if JMU agreed, we'd be 2014 at the earliest, likely 2015 or 2016. We won't move faster than we want to.

(07-26-2012 01:31 PM)Dukes09 Wrote:  

(07-26-2012 01:17 PM)knucklehead Wrote:  Scott Bilo just tweeted:

Quote:Answer for #WAC football in 2013: porbably not going to happen. May come back in 2014 or 15, accoring to Jeff Hurd.

well no crap... no one is holding their breath for 2013 football. I know that if JMU agreed, we'd be 2014 at the earliest, likely 2015 or 2016. We won't move faster than we want to.

Not meaning to hijack the thread but why did your admin decide to renovate 2/3 of your stadium, add an upper deck and leave the opposite side untouched vs completing the horseshoe and leaving the upper deck for later? looks like the seating capacity would be about the same but the stadium would be balanced and completely renovated. What you have looks great, just wondering why y'all took that approach for a remodel.

(07-27-2012 08:24 AM)97App Wrote:  

(07-26-2012 01:31 PM)Dukes09 Wrote:  

(07-26-2012 01:17 PM)knucklehead Wrote:  Scott Bilo just tweeted:

Quote:Answer for #WAC football in 2013: porbably not going to happen. May come back in 2014 or 15, accoring to Jeff Hurd.

well no crap... no one is holding their breath for 2013 football. I know that if JMU agreed, we'd be 2014 at the earliest, likely 2015 or 2016. We won't move faster than we want to.

Not meaning to hijack the thread but why did your admin decide to renovate 2/3 of your stadium, add an upper deck and leave the opposite side untouched vs completing the horseshoe and leaving the upper deck for later? looks like the seating capacity would be about the same but the stadium would be balanced and completely renovated. What you have looks great, just wondering why y'all took that approach for a remodel.

Almost all of our fans are wondering the exact same thing. We were okay with the one side because the idea was that the other lower level would get done 1-2 years later.
Then they came out and changed their mind about completing the project, costs I'm sure, and saying it'll only get done if demand requires it.
I agree that the ground horseshoe should've been completed prior to adding an upper deck, but our admin hasn't been too bright lately.
We won't get that level of demand as an Fcs program. Don't expect changes until after we're FBS and we keep selling out.
We sold out 4 of 5 last year and barely missed selling out the other.

(07-27-2012 08:30 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  

(07-27-2012 08:24 AM)97App Wrote:  

(07-26-2012 01:31 PM)Dukes09 Wrote:  

(07-26-2012 01:17 PM)knucklehead Wrote:  Scott Bilo just tweeted:

Quote:Answer for #WAC football in 2013: porbably not going to happen. May come back in 2014 or 15, accoring to Jeff Hurd.

well no crap... no one is holding their breath for 2013 football. I know that if JMU agreed, we'd be 2014 at the earliest, likely 2015 or 2016. We won't move faster than we want to.

Not meaning to hijack the thread but why did your admin decide to renovate 2/3 of your stadium, add an upper deck and leave the opposite side untouched vs completing the horseshoe and leaving the upper deck for later? looks like the seating capacity would be about the same but the stadium would be balanced and completely renovated. What you have looks great, just wondering why y'all took that approach for a remodel.

Almost all of our fans are wondering the exact same thing. We were okay with the one side because the idea was that the other lower level would get done 1-2 years later.
Then they came out and changed their mind about completing the project, costs I'm sure, and saying it'll only get done if demand requires it.
I agree that the ground horseshoe should've been completed prior to adding an upper deck, but our admin hasn't been too bright lately.
We won't get that level of demand as an Fcs program. Don't expect changes until after we're FBS and we keep selling out.
We sold out 4 of 5 last year and barely missed selling out the other.

Hopefully this WAC east will happen (lot of moving pieces to get going in the same direction though). The teams mentioned so far JMU, Ga Southern, JSU, Liberty and us (App State) have good fan support and are in areas that may not be the largest media markets but the local area supports the local school 1st. It makes the gameday much more of an experience when everyone in town is talking about the upcoming game vs having to explain that there is a game going on.
---------------
I generally put little stock in future plans if they aren't currently funded. Kidd Brewer stadium was supposed to get a grandstand mirroring the west side in the late 70s-early 80s, note we just started really upgrading the stadium in the mid 00's. Looks nice and I think they did a good job but as building standards and materials change over time you lose the ability to have uniformity. Like the posts by so many UNCC fans claiming their stadium is designed to be expanded to 40-50k that's nice in theory, right now they'll enter CUSA with a 15k stadium and 5-10k in temporary bleachers if needed.

Lamar and Sam Houston State are two other rumored teams, although I could personally do without either. Lamar was 14.4k avg and national-runner up SHSU was a whopping 8.1k avg. The latter seriously lacks any fan support to justify being an fbs program.

Also, there's a rumor of a Big Sky merger (another bad idea IMO). Most of those schools have poor support aside from the Montana schools, and Montana is currently about to get serious penalties by the NCAA and they just fired their HC and AD during the player rape allegations.

I have a feeling the Big sky isn't jumping as a group, and Montana has their hands full like you said. (bad analogy)

(07-27-2012 10:46 AM)knucklehead Wrote:  I have a feeling the Big sky isn't jumping as a group, and Montana has their hands full like you said. (bad analogy)

That's the main reason I think this is even being discussed/mentioned. If enough Big Sky teams were ready for FBS there's no need for teams in the east. IMO, this set-up would be temporary in its design. It would provide the Idaho and NMSU football teams a conference home and allow enough time for the western FCS teams that have FBS aspirations to move up. The east would need to bring in another couple teams and we'd eventually have an amicable split into 2 seperate conferences. A marraige of convienience that saves the WAC and gives the eastern FCS teams access to FBS.

Announcement in 2-3 weeks on new football members. No names given due to confidentiality, but once school starts back the WAC will move fast to nail it all down.

Info taken from gojaxstate.com... Not my own info.

Listen to Jeff Hurd's press conference a day or two ago. Sounds like some conference had called up and may have just wanted to put their FB programs with the WAC without BB and two other sports. He said it was a quick conversation.
Sounds like the WAC has about 3 new schools ready to come onboard with another 3 discussing it.

http://www.appstatenation.com/2012/07/27...#more-1338

I think App State, Liberty and Jacksonville State are those 3 schools. I think GA Southern, James Madison, and a 3rd mystery school (MAYBE UD?) are the other schools pondering it. I will never donate another dime to JMU if we watch App, GA Southern, Delaware and Liberty go FBS and we're still FCS ourselves. It will be the biggest f up in NCAA history by an administration (at least pertaining to conference realignment, not child rape or player benefits). FCS will be gutted and we'll just be sitting around like idiots...

Jax State AD denies WAC rumors and says nothing is going on. We'll see...
http://www.annistonstar.com/view/full_st...=home_news

Yeah, I read that but I think he purposly postured his words. Remember their Football Coach a few days ago said that he wanted to pursue the WAC, and he seemed well informed. Too well informed for their AD to not have heard anything. You know they talk about stuff like that, and where did his info come from?
Definately believe JMU is in the mix since you were mentioed specifically in another interview. Everyone is trying so hard to not say anything that they will deny things even if found out right now, just the words they use that is important.

(07-28-2012 10:39 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  Yeah, I read that but I think he purposly postured his words. Remember their Football Coach a few days ago said that he wanted to pursue the WAC, and he seemed well informed. Too well informed for their AD to not have heard anything. You know they talk about stuff like that, and where did his info come from?
Definately believe JMU is in the mix since you were mentioed specifically in another interview. Everyone is trying so hard to not say anything that they will deny things even if found out right now, just the words they use that is important.

Correct. About 6 weeks ago our AD was interviewed on the same subject, and he stated that he could not say anything but there were several schools all talking... He said there was no time table on an announcement. The deal is, they need 3 more schools to commit before the WAC will even put it up for a vote . If they vote for the schools to move up then they will move forward with an announcement. Until then, there is "no discussion"...

I personally think, and could be way off, that JSU, JMU, and Liberty are the schools pushing it, and the beauty of it is that the WAC has until June 2014 to decide what it wants for football...as to Hurd's comment on the 2015 season because they might ask for an extension to the waiver if they can't get 6-7-8 schools committed by 2014...

After rethinking this whole thing... JSU may not be playing FBS football until 2015 at the earliest, and it could be longer than that. We've got to have money, and we need aggressive plans to get there before we see big donations. I mean, we have some very generous donors, but if we all knew what we were definitely doing then our alumni base would give more.

If JMU is one of the leaders charging towards FBS then that would be a welcomed change from what has been previously reported.

(07-29-2012 08:02 AM)GE and MTS Wrote:  If JMU is one of the leaders charging towards FBS then that would be a welcomed change from what has been previously reported.

not to sound arrogant here, but if jmu is leading this, first i'm shocked and surprised given our recent incompetent actions. Also, if jmu is leading this, it has legs under it because we know liberty and jax state are on board, and I believe jmu is necessary to get app, delaware and possibly ga southern interested (they're more reliant on app's decision). I think without jmu involved, it fails and doesn't happen. jmu and app have been linked together by both their admins in the past.

I think Jacksonville State and Liberty are near locks for wanting to move up. I think App State wants to move up but would rather not be in the WAC without a majority of eastern schools. Georgia Southern isn't ready to move up but I think would accept an invitation to the WAC to play football in a couple of years. James Madison's commitment to the WAC, in my opinion, is only influencing Delaware's decision to move up. App State would commit to the WAC if James Madison wasn't coming along, as long as another solid football program in the east were coming. But that's just my opinion too.

(07-29-2012 08:39 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  

(07-29-2012 08:02 AM)GE and MTS Wrote:  If JMU is one of the leaders charging towards FBS then that would be a welcomed change from what has been previously reported.

not to sound arrogant here, but if jmu is leading this, first i'm shocked and surprised given our recent incompetent actions. Also, if jmu is leading this, it has legs under it because we know liberty and jax state are on board, and I believe jmu is necessary to get app, delaware and possibly ga southern interested (they're more reliant on app's decision). I think without jmu involved, it fails and doesn't happen. jmu and app have been linked together by both their admins in the past.

JMU is the key. If they are in then App is in which means Ga Southern is in. The question is who will be the 6th team? I see Delaware holding out for CUSA, but would they move for football only so that everything else can stay in the CAA which is preferable than moving everything to CUSA? If they are out, is Lamar the 6th and does this make it less attractive for everyone else?

Perhaps the fact that the WAC east would be football only may may it more attractive for some. However, this makes it tricky for Ga Southern, App and Jax. Can Ga Southern and App get out of the SoCon in football only and allow other sports to stay? If not, App may get a CAA invite, but would Ga Southern? Same problem for Jax State. I wish it would happen, but it is a tricky one.

Craziest rumor I've ever heard.