I would love for a few more FCS schools to "move on up" in similar vein to Liberty especially if a second tier is going to truly develop between the P5 and FCS levels. As a Sam Houston alum, I don't want to be in a legit third tier which is what I am worried FCS will become.

They could use the WAC moniker and let the WAC administer it - I'm sure they would love to and adds more money to league coffers and hey, they may be able to get a few more all sports members out of it due to the credibility of the league and school(s) in the WAC "footprint" that want to move up to FBS.

The key is getting a 9 team league so everyone gets 4 home, 4 away. I don't think you can get there quickly or yet...

All Sports

WAC-West
Cal Baptist
Cal State Bakersfield
Grand Canyon
METRO STATE or UC-SAN DIEGO
Seattle
Utah Valley

WAC-East
Chicago State
LAMAR
Missouri-Kansas City
New Mexico State
SAM HOUSTON STATE
UT-Rio Grande Valley

FBS Football
LAMAR
Liberty
New Mexico State
SAM HOUSTON STATE
UMass
UT-Rio Grande Valley (by 2022, 2023?)


Question remains, who else could you get for FBS football? Do some of the Big Sky schools feel comfortable making the move?

For all-sports, if you had a pretty "centralized" league with NMSU, UT-RGV, SHSU and Lamar... could you find a way to perhaps bring Texas A&M-Corpus Christi into the league (a real travel partner with UT-RGV)?

UTRGV 2022 or 2023...only if someone steps up and donates the money.

It's not impossible, Pres. Bailey has been landing 7- and 8-digit donations. Right now it looks like the focus for fundraising is the med school and endowments for named colleges, but who knows.

It's not coming out of the regular budget, that's for sure. The state is all about cuts right now.

GCu should start football. They can afford it. Could build a stadium for 25000 people easy.

D you are right GCU could have football if they wanted to but the those in charge don't see it as a feasible option. It stinks but I'm ok with it.

This thread belongs on the realignment board, along with all the other Southland posters who are trying to cherry pick a splitting of that conference.

I don't get it. Why do you Texans want to post on the WAC about splitting the Southland Conference? Why do you think a bunch of Basketball schools would want to support that, especially after the Big East collapse? With the waiver for Liberty, doesn't that open it up for you guys to start a new FBS football conference? The Southland is technically eligible since they were once a 1-A conference?

Finally, why do you SLC guys think the WAC, which is not renewing Chicago State, added a D-II move up in Phoenix, and now one in Riverside, getting the geography back on the west coast, would have any interest in expanding east? What is in it for them?

If they can get UCSD fantastic (we'll know by June if the Big West passed on them, if so the WAC gets a year to work on them), and if not Asuza Pacific two years from now looks prime for the picking if something can be worked out with the Big Sky or Pioneer to take their football. One of those gets the WAC to 9 (Chicago State exits by 2018 anyway), both gets them to 10. Perfect for what they want, and big enough to not worry about NMSU moving away in five or six years.

As for UTRGV, I agree with Edinburger, that is probably closer to a decade away. If there is one thing clear about the management of that school it is that it is deliberate and focused. It is building up with a plan backed by hard money. No pie in the sky gold chasing, strictly what they control themselves. Will they want football in 2023 or 2025? Maybe. Will it be scholarship or Pioneer type? Dunno. But it will probably have more to do with how you SLC guys split your too large conference.

These SLC fantasy posts as faux WAC are annoying.

(02-18-2017 01:14 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  This thread belongs on the realignment board, along with all the other Southland posters who are trying to cherry pick a splitting of that conference.

I don't get it. Why do you Texans want to post on the WAC about splitting the Southland Conference? Why do you think a bunch of Basketball schools would want to support that, especially after the Big East collapse? With the waiver for Liberty, doesn;t that open it up for you guys to start a new FBS football conference? The Southland is technically eligibel since they were once a 1-A conference?

Finally, why do you SLC guys think the WAC, which is not renewing Chicago State, added a D-II move up in Phoenix, and now one in Riverside, getting the geography back on the west coast, would have any interest in expanding east? What is in it for them?

If they can get UCSD fantastic (we'll know by June if the Big West passed on them, if so the WAC gets a year to work on them), and if not Asuza Pacific two years from now looks prime for the picking if something can be worked out with the Big Sky or Pioneer to take their football. One of those gets the WAC to 9 (Chicago State exits by 2018 anyway), both gets them to 10. Perfect for what they want, and big enough to not worry about NMSU moving away in five or six years.

As for UTRGV, I agree with Edinburger, that is probably closer to a decade away. If there is one thing clear about the management of that school it is that it is deliberate and focused. It is building up with a plan backed by hard money. No pie in the sky gold chasing, strictly what they control themselves. Will they want football in 2023 or 2025? Maybe. Will it be scholarship or Pioneer type? Dunno. But it will probably have mor eto do with how you SLC guys split your too large conference.

These SLC fantasy posts as faux WAC are annoying.

There is an argument that Southland Conference can not be an FBS conference since they were not 1A at the time when the name changed to FBS. Only other conference that I can think of would be the Big West and the WAC that fell under the FBS umbrella.

(02-17-2017 08:24 PM)dancingNMSUaggie Wrote:  GCu should start football. They can afford it. Could build a stadium for 25000 people easy.

It might be more accurate to say GCU can afford to NOT have a football team. Athletics gets the budgets it needs to be competitive in all sports without needing to send a group of guys around the country to get their brains beat in playing money games. I'm not sure what the benefit to starting football would be at this point, other than simply being able to say we have a football team.

Given the time and money it would take to build a team that could compete at the NCAA's highest levels, my guess is the university would much rather invest in things like continuing to build out the campus and expanding public/private partnerships that make a positive impact in the community (i.e. Habitat for Humanity, Phoenix PD, GCU Learning Lounge).

Starting football for the sake of having football would be a terrible business decision, and GCU didn't get where it is today by making too many of those. Unless there is some compelling reason beyond message board fantasy, I don't see GCU ever going down the football road.

I think your wrong about it being a bad business decision. What does a successful football team? MONEY, and GCU is flush with it. GCU could easily become a powerhouse in football at the mid major level. That soccer stadium BTW blew me away! GCU could build a super nice 25000 seat stadium on campus, pack it out, and your school would get way more publicity than it already does. Football is what really brings attention to a school more than all the other sports combined. WAC football at the FBS level would be resurrected with GCU and Liberty leading the way. Idaho, NMSU and other schools like Lamar who have wanted to make the jump would. The WAC would be stabilized for all sports. GCU should think about it. I don't think those things you mentioned would get robbed money wise either. Do it Jerry and really piss off ASU!

(02-18-2017 06:37 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  There is an argument that Southland Conference can not be an FBS conference since they were not 1A at the time when the name changed to FBS. Only other conference that I can think of would be the Big West and the WAC that fell under the FBS umbrella.

Liberty and many other moves by the NCAA shows the NCAA is extremely flexible. If you get a sensible working you can pull it off. This looks to me more like Lamar fans (SHS is their "beard" as the saying goes) trying to patch together a Great West version of Indy schools as cover to move their school up. The problems are of course, first their school doesn't have the student body support, nor the resources, nor the funding, and not much interest. I place this with a handful of intense North Dakota supporters who think the same. For a Day the UND supporters convinced their leadership to go BSC instead of tSL. That experience truly soured the entire west to having CST schools. They proved a major pain in the butt to travel to for Western schools. It was all about their needs and not the Western schools needs. I see the same dynamic here.

I admire your enthusiasm for GCU football, dancing. I have to believe everything you point out has been considered by leadership, yet here we are without a football program. My guess is they believe the current athletic offerings accomplish everything they want them to do, both for campus/student life and the university's profile/visibility.

Glad you got to see the soccer stadium, as it is pretty impressive. I'm not even a soccer fan, but bought season tickets and attended most of the home matches. It's still a little too hot in Phoenix to truly "enjoy" outdoor sporting events at the beginning of collegiate soccer season, but the games were still a lot of fun.

The only way that GCU gets football is if they raise tuition, but GCU prides itself on how long they have gone without raising tuition, so it just isn't going to happen.

(02-18-2017 01:14 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  This thread belongs on the realignment board, along with all the other Southland posters who are trying to cherry pick a splitting of that conference.

I don't get it. Why do you Texans want to post on the WAC about splitting the Southland Conference? Why do you think a bunch of Basketball schools would want to support that, especially after the Big East collapse? With the waiver for Liberty, doesn't that open it up for you guys to start a new FBS football conference? The Southland is technically eligible since they were once a 1-A conference?

Finally, why do you SLC guys think the WAC, which is not renewing Chicago State, added a D-II move up in Phoenix, and now one in Riverside, getting the geography back on the west coast, would have any interest in expanding east? What is in it for them?

If they can get UCSD fantastic (we'll know by June if the Big West passed on them, if so the WAC gets a year to work on them), and if not Asuza Pacific two years from now looks prime for the picking if something can be worked out with the Big Sky or Pioneer to take their football. One of those gets the WAC to 9 (Chicago State exits by 2018 anyway), both gets them to 10. Perfect for what they want, and big enough to not worry about NMSU moving away in five or six years.

First, the WAC becoming an FBS league is such a long shot that it is probably not worth discussing. It could not be done with schools like Lamar and SHSU. It would take some FBS schools leaving their current conferences. Probably some NCAA waivers, playoff revenue sharing from the other FBS conferences, some bowl game tie-ins. Just too many hurdles.

Second, Chicago State is leaving the WAC when someone says that they are leaving. Neither the WAC nor Chicago State have indicated that they want that to happen. Stating it as if it is fact does not make it valid. It is simply a prediction or a desire on your part.

Third, with the WAC adding CBU in 2018, there is no need to add another D2 move-up school such as Asuza Pacific or UCSD. Asuza has not shown any desire to move up and they have football. UCSD has made it clear that they want to move up to the Big West. The WAC is better off looking at D1 schools like Denver, Northern Colorado and Sacramento State as schools to add to get to 10.

(02-18-2017 01:04 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(02-18-2017 06:37 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  There is an argument that Southland Conference can not be an FBS conference since they were not 1A at the time when the name changed to FBS. Only other conference that I can think of would be the Big West and the WAC that fell under the FBS umbrella.

Liberty and many other moves by the NCAA shows the NCAA is extremely flexible. If you get a sensible working you can pull it off. This looks to me more like Lamar fans (SHS is their "beard" as the saying goes) trying to patch together a Great West version of Indy schools as cover to move their school up. The problems are of course, first their school doesn't have the student body support, nor the resources, nor the funding, and not much interest. I place this with a handful of intense North Dakota supporters who think the same. For a Day the UND supporters convinced their leadership to go BSC instead of tSL. That experience truly soured the entire west to having CST schools. They proved a major pain in the butt to travel to for Western schools. It was all about their needs and not the Western schools needs. I see the same dynamic here.

I would not put down Lamar that way. They had games where fans showed up over 12,000 to 14,000. Just depends on who they play. Lamar have backing by Billy Tubbs and Barry Switzer who brought the football program back from the dead. They have Big 12 type feel for them when Billy and Barry were former Sooners' coaches.