Would the MWC take Montana?

sportskc · **Joined:** Sun Nov 09, 2003 11:18 pm **Posts:** 758

If Montana moved up to I-A would MWC take them? I know Boise St would be the 10th member more than likely, but if they expand to 12, would Montana be a possibility?

pounder · **Posted:** Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:34 pm

This is actually a tough call for me... but I'll say no.

The MWC certainly has the profile to help Montana forget about once being the big fish in the small pond, and probably would mean a few bucks for Montana. It's good from their end.

For the MWC, while complaining about the Montana TV market is questionable given the presence of Wyoming, that's how the MWC will vote. Montana- little bling. Boise State, a little more bling. Fresno, carumba!

Of course, the Mountain West will have a lot of marginalizing to overcome when they find out that the CSTV contract will gut the heck out of them. The WAC thanks you.

brewpoke · **Posted:** Wed Jun 08, 2005 5:05 pm

I wouldn't bet on any expansion at all, and if there will be, not for 4-5 years. As to ESPN's crappy midweek games...the WAC can have 'em, along with our conference name....we're doing fine.

brewpoke · **Posted:** Wed Jun 08, 2005 5:40 pm

Quote:

Wyoming probably has enough allumni in the Front Range market to justify them as the Front Range's 5th or 6th team in all sports and 4th or 5th in football.

Okay....Air Force, Colorado, Colorado State. So in all sports we're behind Northern Colorado and Denver University? WTF? Your football ranking is HIGHLY debatable...if you count only the last 4 years of our history, you could rightly rank us fourth....but 5th? Behind who, UNC (the only other Front Range School)? Again, I ask, WTF?

brewpoke · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:00 am

Quote:

Also, brewpoke, I was talking about following and market support overall in the Front Range Market, which is primarily based in Colorado, and not the competitiveness of the athletic program. For that, Wyoming is definitely 4th or higher amongst those teams and in the past could be argued 2nd or on a occaision 1st, during the years CU was down.

Okay, gotcha....market. Then I would acquiesce to your argument....totally correct.

Do you subscribe to the east coast media bias thing that comes up repeatedly w/ fans of western programs (for the record, I certainly do)? Well there is the same thing going on in microcosm w/ Wyoming vis-a-vis the Denver media market.

But, then again, I think the whole media market thing is over rated. But what do I know, I'm just a lifelong resident of the greatest state in the Union, and a proud alum (geology, '03)?

brewpoke · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:04 am

Quote:

. Wyoming is in a better situation than most states its size with their state's schools. You are better off than Montana, Montana State, Idaho, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, North Dakota, and South Dakota. If the University of Wyoming was located in Casper or Thermopolis or Cody, well long ways from being within commuting distance of the prime Front Range market, then Wyoming wouldn't be so well off, marketwise for conference alignment. Wyoming is the smallest state in the union. Thats tough for conference alignment.

Also, if there was a Wyoming State University, you would have a similar problem that North Dakota State and South Dakota State have, which is proclaiming all of your small populated state as a market, and thus make being in D1-A probably not even possible.

So whether Wyoming is 4th, 5th or 6th in the primarily Colorado based Front Range market, is a very nice advantage that Wyoming has over other small populated state based teams.

Which is why you can't argue with the fact that Wyoming was very smart when it designed it's higher education system, as opposed to all the other states out west. I mean, Montana has like 5 publicly funded higher education institutions, all competing for funding. We do it right. 8-) ;)

Jimmy · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2005 5:05 am

No, too small and no baseball, softball, gymnastics, etc.

sportskc · **Joined:** Sun Nov 09, 2003 11:18 pm **Posts:** 758

But with Iowa remember when those schools were founded Iowa's population was probally higher than Florida and at the time it seemed the right thing to do.

tman · **Posted:** Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:45 am

Actually, there is also Upper Iowa which is in the NSIC (DII).

As far as football goes, Montana is on par with CSU and UW for attendance and could probably pull in a few more athletes from California and other places to compete if they had 85 schol.

It's the other sports that are lacking.

Would the MWC take Montana?

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