The WAC is trying to expand

[aztecbrothers]

www.sbnation.com/2010/9/22/1705064/wac-expansion-denver-texas-state-utsa-seattle

Slim pickens out there.

[JOCAZTEC]

Sacramento State, UC Davis, and Cal State Fullerton which the WAC should assist in bringing back football.

That's what I'd do.

HAM

[HollywoodAztec]

The WAC’s football league doesn’t have many options really, especially in the Pacific Time Zone. I actually think that expanding in Texas would benefit them. I don’t know where the city of San Antonio ranks in terms of TV market but capturing this city’s viewers would help the league. Furthermore, the other candidate, Texas State, has over 30k students and from what I’ve read on the MWC board, they have loyal fans albeit small. Moreover, if they can somehow convince North Texas (30k+ students) to join too, the WAC will have three big Texas schools helping the WAC stay afloat.

OTOH, Montana is certainly a very intriguing expansion candidate because they’re consistently one of the top FCS programs. IMO, their addition would be better than either of the Texas schools in terms of competition.

As for the WAC’s basketball league, Seattle U was a former WCC member which is trying to go back to its “glory” days. Their addition and Denver’s would cut down travel cost. I think the WAC should add both. The WAC wants to be smart in terms of how they go about expanding but with limited options, I don’t see how they can turn down these candidates.

[goaztecs]

Sounds like a disaster to me. Some weak teams there.

[JOCAZTEC]

Montana?

I've always wanted a Cali Conference of California colleges, only. If the WAC were smart...did I say smart?...yeah get teams in the most populated States...

Duh is in the dictionary.

HAM

[AztecBill]

UT San Antonio should be invited. They are an attractive prospect for the WAC.

[texasaztec]

I am SOOO glad the MWC is not in the position of contemplating having to add UC Davis as a football program in order to survive. Ugh! Good luck WAC.

[AztecWilliam]

HollywoodAztec's appraisal of the WAC situation is on target. If the Western Athletic Conference is to survive at all it absolutely must find some replacements for the three strong schools is has just lost. Sure, no big name program (e.g., Houston and SMU) is going to sign up, but the names mentioned aren't bad considering the circumstances.

Two of the proposed new members seem interesting to me. Montana has had great success in the FCS lately. Their coach, Bobby Hauck, was so well-respected that UNLV hired him. The program has enormous fan support. As for a stadium, theirs seats 25,000 already and probably could be increased to the mandatory minimum 30,000 without too much trouble.

Texas State is also a program that has growth potential, in my opinion, at least. Remember, we're talking about Texas, and football is king down there. Texas State's stadium seats 16,000 at present, but the school has plans to increase capacity (and plans for a rise to FBS status generally).

Also note that Texas San Antonio is starting up a FB program! Contrast that with all the colleges in California that had dropped the sport or are feared to be about to do so. (Too bad California is so inhospitable to college sports. Yes, the state is huge and has many resources, but let's face the fact that we are approaching the status of an underdeveloped country in many ways. Being broke certainly would qualify as a characteristic of an underdeveloped country.)

The WAC, if it can attract the new schools (for FB as well as those with no FB program), has a decent chance to survive. They may not end up being much stronger (if at all) than the MAC and the Sunbelt, but such a fate sure beats going under.

AzWm

[panammaniac]

The WAC's best hope IMO is to focus on continuing to be a strong basketball conference while maintaining football just enough to remain marginally competitive. Face it, the remaining 6 WAC members are not strong football schools - never have been and probably never will be (with the exception of Hawaii who has had a handful of strong seasons over the past decade including a BCS berth). All of the remaining 6 are bleeding red ink trying to turn their football programs around. I'm confident that at least NMSU, USU, and Idaho will eventually turn the corner but I'm not so confident about SJSU, and I don't see any of them being perennial Top 25 candidates any time in the near future if ever.

On the basketball side, both NMSU and Utah State have a long history there. Idaho and LA Tech have been reasonably competitive. Out of the latest shuffle, the only big blow was losing Nevada. If the WAC can go out and grab a couple of good basketball programs, even if they are non-football schools, I think it would be good for the conference.

Historically, Denver hasn't cared much for any sport that doesn't involve ice skates, but they have shown some recent basketball success and seem intent on building the program. They have good enrollment in a large TV market and nice athletic facilities. They may not be a bad pickup as long as you look at the future rather than the past. I'm not so sure about Seattle - don't know enough about their current state of affairs to have an opinion.

I would like to see Pacific considered. They would be a solid basketball add and would help keep at least some California focus. If Sac State ever gets added they are a perfect travel pair - although I'm not so high on Sac State either. Also, if Pacific were to join it would leave Davis as the sole Big West school in NorCal. They could go to the Big Sky in all sports and essentially make the Big West a bus league requiring no air travel for conference play.

Other schools that have been mentioned in various discussions are Weber State, North Texas, and one of the Louisiana schools (either ULM or ULL). I would love to see Weber added for the strength of their basketball program. North Texas would be great but they seem content in the SBC. Adding ULM or ULL would help bridge the geographic gap with LA Tech.

Most of the WAC fans are actually pretty excited about Montana. They have a solid program and great facilities. However, as we've seen with other FCS schools who have tried to move up, their success in FCS is no guarantee of continued success in FBS. One example: Marshall. It's a big step up in funding without any guaranteed return on the investment, so the powers that be at Montana have a tough decision to make. Admittedly, Montanta doesn't add much in terms of TV sets, but their attendance is very solid. Without Boise and Fresno, they would probably have the best attendance numbers in the WAC.

[Fishn'Aztec]

I'm not so sure about Seattle - don't know enough about their current state of affairs to have an opinion.

Cameron Dollar needs watching. Dude prompted most of the violations Romar was handed at udub!

[AztecWilliam]

Building a viable schedule is one of the most important issues for a college football program wishing to go independent. I am speaking here of schools playing at the highest level (currently FBS). While it is not impossible to schedule teams late in the year, doing that is nevertheless not easy. Part of the reason for that is not hard to understand; independents are a rare breed these days.

Here is a quick review of conference affiliation vs independents from 1950 to the present. (A number of conferences have folded and others have been formed in that period of time. Also, the Ivy League is not included after the 1980 entry since they did not move to what was called I-AA until 1981.

Entries include year, number of conferences, total number of members of those conferences, and, finally, the number of schools operating as independents that year.

• 1950....9....81..23
  
• 1960...10...80..15
  
• 1970...10...81..18
  
• 1980...10...87..23
  
• 1990....9....72..26
  
• 2000...10...109..7
  
• 2010...11...117..3
  

As you can see, there was a huge trend of indies joining conferences in the past two decades. Now there are only three, Army, Navy, and Notre Dame. With so few left, it must be getting harder and harder to schedule quality opponents in late Oct. and all of Nov. Nearly all schools are playing conference games by then. That would also apply to the FCS schools, almost all of which are members of conferences.

AzWm