The WAC was formed in 1962. BYU, Utah and Wyoming were original WAC members. Colorado St joined in 1967, and Air Force joined in 1980.

New Mexico (1962) and SDSU (1978) had a long history with the WAC. UNLV was a newcomer (joining in 1996).

Fresno St came late to the WAC party, joining in 1992.

When the MWC was formed in 1998, BYU and AF were part of a group of 5 (w/Colo St, Wyoming and Utah) that invited SDSU, UNLV and New Mexico to join them.

At the time the MWC was formed, Fresno St had much better crowd support than most of the original MWC 8. Fresno averaged 35K-40K per game. They had a much better football program than UNLV and New Mexico. Yet they were snubbed.

And they were snubbed again when the MWC expanded to 9 and chose TCU instead of Fresno.

And they were snubbed again when the MWC added Boise.

Clearly, the power brokers in the MWC (BYU, Utah, AF, Wyoming, Colo St) were not interested in adding Fresno. Perhaps they viewed Fresno as a renegade school. Who knows.

For whatever reason, Fresno only got in the MWC after BYU, Utah and TCU left.

Fast forward to today. While the odds are the Big East stays at 14 and Air Force is the last school, there's a chance of going to 16 if both BYU and Air Force want to come. If so, we need a 16th.

Fresno would be an obvious choice to round out the West division. However, beginning with the Liberty Bowl director, we are starting to hear a lot more about East Carolina than Fresno.

Is East Carolina the compromise candidate? Have BYU and Air Force vetoed Fresno St again? Certainly, BYU would seem to be in a position to make demands about who it wants in the Western Division.

(10-26-2012 05:20 AM)CougarRed Wrote:  The WAC was formed in 1962. BYU, Utah and Wyoming were original WAC members. Colorado St joined in 1967, and Air Force joined in 1980.

New Mexico (1962) and SDSU (1978) had a long history with the WAC. UNLV was a newcomer (joining in 1996).

Fresno St came late to the WAC party, joining in 1992.

When the MWC was formed in 1998, BYU and AF were part of a group of 5 (w/Colo St, Wyoming and Utah) that invited SDSU, UNLV and New Mexico to join them.

At the time the MWC was formed, Fresno St had much better crowd support than most of the original MWC 8. Fresno averaged 35K-40K per game. They had a much better football program than UNLV and New Mexico. Yet they were snubbed.

And they were snubbed again when the MWC expanded to 9 and chose TCU instead of Fresno.

And they were snubbed again when the MWC added Boise.

Clearly, the power brokers in the MWC (BYU, Utah, AF, Wyoming, Colo St) were not interested in adding Fresno. Perhaps they viewed Fresno as a renegade school. Who knows.

For whatever reason, Fresno only got in the MWC after BYU, Utah and TCU left.

Fast forward to today. While the odds are the Big East stays at 14 and Air Force is the last school, there's a chance of going to 16 if both BYU and Air Force want to come. If so, we need a 16th.

Fresno would be an obvious choice to round out the West division. However, beginning with the Liberty Bowl director, we are starting to hear a lot more about East Carolina than Fresno.

Is East Carolina the compromise candidate? Have BYU and Air Force vetoed Fresno St again? Certainly, BYU would seem to be in a position to make demands about who it wants in the Western Division.

From everything that has been said and written I don't think there is any way that th Big East is going to 16 schools anytime soon. With that being said BYU and AFA's, opinion of Fresno do not matter. Except for this message board I have never heard Fresno State mentioned as a candidate. Based on what has been said I think it is safe to assume that the order is 1) BYU, 2) Air Force, 3) ECU. For whatever reason, the Big East does not consider Fresno State a viable candidate and there isn't really a reason to keep speculating about FSU until someone from the league or someone from the media mentions them by name as a serious candidate.

I agree Upstream. The BE will add only 1 more. If it is BYU or AF, Navy will go west for sure. Boise, SD, Memphis, navy,Smu, UH,Navy. If ECU was #14, maybe both Louisville, and Cincy go west. Louisville could have perm crossover with USF to maintain Fla ties.

Well, we recruit FLA too.

(10-26-2012 08:01 AM)BJUnklFkr Wrote:  Well, we recruit FLA too.

If both UC and UL somehow were in the West, I doubt there will be permanent crossovers. But if there were, you could always have UCF...

(10-26-2012 08:36 AM)dwalker85 Wrote:  

(10-26-2012 08:01 AM)BJUnklFkr Wrote:  Well, we recruit FLA too.

If both UC and UL somehow were in the West, I doubt there will be permanent crossovers. But if there were, you could always have UCF...

Agree Dwalker. I thought about that right after my post. I like USF better, just because we've had some good games with them. But UCF will be a good series for us too.

UL and us can switch crossovers every two years, and both still be in FLA.