Idaho will join the Western Athletic Conference in 2005, leaving the Sun Belt Conference after one more season.

The WAC Board of Directors extended an invitation to Idaho on Friday and the school accepted. The announcement came at the conclusion of the Board's meeting in Half Moon Bay, California.

The WAC currently has 10 members including Louisiana Tech but will have nine including Idaho when competition begins in the 200502006 season.

Rice, SMU, Tulsa and UTEP are moving to Conference USA.

Well, for all practical intents and purposes, the WAC is an all-sports Big West. How that makes the WAC better than the Sunbelt is beyond me, but if Louisiana Tech wants to stay in that conference, more power to the Bulldogs.

It is beyond my understanding but supposedly the La. Tech fans are happy about STILL being a WAC member.

There was some sort of alumni meeting in Alexandria a few weels agp and they were interviewed and said they are eagerly looking forward to visiting Hawaii. Evidenyly these people have money to burn.

I thought that with some apprenhension on their part they would have tried harder to get back into the SunBelt but I was wrong. After being snubbed by the C-USA for membership in favor of UTEP, I looked for them to bolt tothe SunBelt without looking back at the WAC.

La Tech must see the SB as an inferior conference. Which it is right now.

Right now Sun Belt is vastly inferior in the 2 main sports. The WAC is still probably a 2 bid bb conference. The Sun Belt is still 1. FB attendance is no contest. Fresno and Hawaii are BCS caliber programs.

WAC does have Utah St., NMSU and Idaho from the Sun Belt, but they were average Sun Belt fb teams and better than average bb. They will be at the bottom, at first, of the WAC in fb and they are comparable to MTSU, Troy, ASU, ULL and ULM. They are way ahead of FIU and FAU who will take several years to get competitive.

Fresno, Hawaii and LT probably would have won the Sun Belt over each of the past 3 years and certainly would have finished no worse than 2nd in any of those years. Nevada probably would have been 2nd and Boise definitely would have won. UNT is the only Sun Belt team that could compete in TEXT other I-A conference right now. That doesn't mean things won't change, but that is reality for now.

LT made the right decision for the short term. In 5 years, they need to re-evalutate.

Publicity is one reason to re-evaluate. Its notable that Idaho joining the WAC did not get any mention in the Houston paper today, even in the "transactions" section. The WAC is definitely falling down in the hierarchy.

I never saw the reason behind Idaho way over there in the Northwest being in the SunBelt Conference in the first place. Just like what is University of Denver doing in the SunBelt in basketball.

Both these universities need to be in conferences in their own regions. Now Idaho will be in the WAC and if Denver would join the Big West Conference that would make more sense.

Good Luck to the Vandals.

Why not have U of Denver join the WAC as an affialate member, playing all sports except football? That would get them to 10 Basketball teams, and 9, for some reason was a problem for the WAC in some people's minds.

I would disagree about the WAC being Big West II. Sure, all of the members that will comprise the WAC were at one time a member of the Big West, all except Hawaii. But what you have here is a grouping of teams that have been playing Div 1-A football for a longer period of time, on average than the Sun Belt. Only BSU and UI have comparable short lengths of Div 1-A play when compared to TSU, MTSU, UNT, and FAU and FIU are brand new. Only ASU, ULL, and ULM have been playing Div. 1-A football for more than 10 years. UNR, has played Div. 1-A since the early 90's. U Hawaii, CSU-Fresno, SJSU, USU, NMSU, and LTU have been playing Div. 1-A for more than 2 decades. This means there is more tradition in the WAC than the Sun Belt. CSU-Fresno has a tradition that runs well back into the 70's, back to the PCAA and California Raisin Bowl Days. Remember Coach Sweeney. He had over 200+ victories in his time at Fresno. Hawaii has a tradition that goes back into the 60's, and they have played in the Holiday Bowl with the original WAC members (now MWC). Boise State is an up and coming program, the fastest growing and emerging traditional western power. La Tech has some tradition with Terry Bradshaw going there, and for Basketball, they have Karl Malone, and an excellent Lady Techters women's BBall team. So there is an "household name" identity to the WAC, even without the original members, and the current members have way more tradition as a whole than anyone in the Sun Belt. All the SBC has for a power is UNT, and Troy State has shown a little something as well. Not comparable to Fresno, Hawaii, or Boise State, and La Tech. Its not quite the level of the MWC, but it isn't that far removed from the MWC, and maybe just a notch below C-USA. Certainly better than the Sun Belt, it almost has the amount of tradition of the MAC and maybe on the same level as the MAC, with slightly better TV markets.

denver adds nothing to the wac except another mouth to feed as they contribute very little to olympic sports the wac needs. they dont offer track or baseball, therefore it would be wise of the wac to seek out a school that offers these sports, since that is what they really need.

Yeah, but it adds the Denver market, and since the WAC headquarters are in Denver, and there are no WAC teams in the state of Colorado, why not U Denver?

Maybe the lack of those sports is an issue, but an affiliate membership would give them a Denver and Colorado base.

MWC 12

All old rivals still play each other. Let that be clear. even though there is a switch in DIVISION for some they will always , ALWAYS, always, play each other EVERY YEAR.

1. why add Fresno State?
They are very good. They feature one of the top established non-BCS traditional football powers, the rank of TUC, Colorado State, Marshall, Southern Miss., Louisville, BYU, and Utah. They are a fearful giant killer and beat the BCS giants on a regular basis. (beat 2 Pac-10 bowl teams in 2003 alone) They have been to 5 post-season bowl games over the last 5 years. They are located in the center of California market, which is also the hotbed of football recruits (top 3 football recruiting state, California, Texas and Florida). They bring the Silicon Valley bowl which pays for their inclusion.

2. why add Hawaii?
Hawaii will be very enticing for the 2 programs that get a lot of players from there- Utah and BYU. Hawaii is coveted by ESPN (=air time/$) for obvious reasons and is a selling point for a conference that has them. They bring the Hawaii bowl which pays for their inclusion.

3. a toss-up between Nevada and Boise
why add boise? Though with a low athletic budget, Boise features an up and coming football program. They are good in the recent years. Now they are getting some exposures over the years statewide in attendance. They bring the humanitarian bowl which pays for their inclusion.

MWC Pacific division
BYU
UTAH
FRESNO STATE
HAWAII
SDSU
UNLV

MWC Mountain division
TCU
UNM
CSU
AFA
WYOMING
BOISE

BYU and UTAH plays
their division with 5 games. Plus MAINTAINS OLD RIVALRIES with CSU, UTAH, WYOMING, UNM. That¡¦s 9 conference games in a typical 11 game season (every few years it would be 12 game season). but wait; No sweat though- they will have 2 non conference games only once every 3 years. 2 of every 3 years they will have 3+ non conf. games. Reason is 1) AT Hawaii doesn¡¦t count as a game used up 2)every few years there are more Saturdays= more games.

BTW, every 6 years there would be 4 non conference games (extra Saturdays and at Hawaii)

so, in a 6 year span:

1 year with 4 non conf. games
3 years with 3 non conf. games and
2 years with 2 non conf games.
4+3+3+3+2+2=17 non conf games divided by 6 years = about 3 non conf. games per year. That's exactly what any other 12 team division normally gets on an 11 game schedule.

As a last appetizer to my thesis, we could, if necessary, work it that Utah and BYU play at Hawaii 2 of every 3 years. That would create, 2 in every 3 years, an 8 game conferece slate. every 3rd year would be an extra saturday for possibly more non conference games= 19 non conf. games/6 years= over 3 non conf games /year.

BYU plays utah, hawaii, fresno, unlv, sdsu (div) plus unm csu afa wyoming. The hawaii game doesnt count either every year of 2 of eevry 3 years (AT hawaii). thats 8 conf games and 3 or 4 non conf. games
~same for utah~

That is the hardest hurdle for this MWC 12 plan. And, as demonstrated, it can easily work well.

Fresno plays their 5 game division plus 3 games in the mountain division for 8 game conf. total.

Hawaii plays 5 division games (depending on the above utah/byu scenarios)and fills their 8 game conf. cap by playing the remainder against mountain division teams.

UNLV and sdsu play their division (5 games) and the 2 or 3 "old" rivalries with mountain west teams in a roatation manner (at least every other year, maybe 2 of 3 years).

For the mountain diivision its simpler

UNM plays 5 game division utah, byu, and then sdsu or unlv in either a every other year or maybe both in the same year depending on hawaiis "invisible game" role. Looks good on the easy 8 game cap and maintaining the strong, popular, old rivalries.

CSU, Wyomintg, AFA the same.

TCU/Boise 5 game division plus
3 in the pacific division

thats the 1st draft. everything takes ironing out. even the shirt youre wearing-

oops made you look- lucky there was no hand to flick your face..