No way is Fullerton, Long Beach or UoP going to bring back football. Not going to happen and it is futile to even speculate it.

Bison Kent wants Sac State, PSU and NAU out of the Big Sky. Not going to happen. There is no other legitimate conference nor could you create a legitimate conference.

The Big West, after utah state and idaho, will be as follows:

UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC Riverside
UC Santa Barbara
Cal Poly
Cal State Northridge
Fullerton State
Long Beach State
University of the Pacific


Hawaii may join the Big West for its strong baseball and volleyball programs. They would play football as an independent.

It looks more and more likely that the new Western I-AA Football League will happen. The proposed members are meeting next week in Florida. Here is an article from the Fargo, ND Forum.

NDSU to explore football league
By Jeff Kolpack
jkolpack@forumcomm.com
The Forum - 06/05/2003

A fledgling Division I-AA football-only conference that would include North Dakota State could take its first step next week.

NDSU Athletic Director Gene Taylor said administrators from NDSU, Northern Colorado, South Dakota State, California Davis, Southern Utah and St. Mary’s (Calif.) will get together in Orlando, Fla.

They’ll be there anyway for the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics convention June 12-16. Taylor said California Poly San Luis Obispo, which has expressed interest in the new league, will be the only school not present.

Taylor said there is no specific agenda. The meeting is expected to encompass a broad range of topics.

“This is the hows and the whys,” he said. “Scheduling. Structure. We’ll kick around all those issues. We’ll probably come out of there with more questions than answers.”

Southern Utah, Cal Poly and St. Mary’s are Division I-AA independents. Northern Colorado and Cal Davis started their Division I reclassification clock this year.

Cal Davis will join the Big West Conference, which does not have football, effective in 2004-05. Northern Colorado is said to be interested in the Mid-Continent Conference, which also doesn’t have football.

NDSU said it will notify the NCAA of its Division I intent by the end of this year and begin the first of a four-year reclassification period in 2004-05. South Dakota State has not put a timetable on its move, but said it will do so when it finds a conference.

Both NDSU and SDSU explored joining the Big Sky Conference. The Big Sky, which has football, was cool on the idea of expansion, which could force NDSU and SDSU to search for other options.

Enter the proposed, un-named, football league. Northern Colorado athletic director Jim Fallis said he would like to begin league play in 2004-05.

“I’m going cautiously with it,” Taylor said. “It depends on which direction we’re going as far as the Big Sky or Mid-Con.”

The Mid-Continent Conference also has an important meeting scheduled next week in Macomb, Ill. Its Presidents Council may take up the expansion issue.

The league may also fill its vacant commissioner position.

“Once we find out that, we can make some more serious contact with them,” Taylor said.

Here is a site I created. The voted on name of the speculatated new conference is the Great Western Conference so that is what I used. I tried to give links to all the official and unofficial sites for all the teams in this new football only I-AA conference.

What do you think?

http://www.freewebs.com/great_western_conf/index.htm

A few questions.

1- Why didn't North Dakota U and South Dakota U make the jump to D1aa with NDSU and SDSU?

2- Is there anyone else from the D2 conference that NDSU and SDSU looking to move up?

3- With most of these football schools (non-cali) also looking for better homes for Basketball and other sports is there a chance that this new league could be more than just football? I don't know where NDSU and SDSU have looked for BBall. As of July 1st Utah Valley State College is looking for a D1 conference. Denver U may not last in the Sun Belt if the league dosen't keep it's western members (USU, Idaho, NMSU) and I'm certain that Southern Utah would like something better than the Mid-Con for geographic reasons.

Just currious. Thanks.

CKS

The reason the University of North Dakota isn't going up right now is the fact that their number one sport is hockey. That is at the DI level (you can play DI hockey with the rest being DII sports). I feel that since NDSU is going UND will as well in the near future but they will have to raise some more money before that happens.

The University of South Dakota is a smaller university (around 8,000 students) and is in a small city of Vermillion, SD (pop.=9,000). They don't have the support or facilities right now to move up. Not to say they never will, but I think UND will move up long before USD.

Actually, Northern Colorado was in the North Central Conference (NDSU & SDSU's current conference) will be moving up this year. (NDSU will be moving up next year, as will SDSU supposedly). SDSU is not sure yet as they were thought to be forced to find a conference before moving up.

I think NDSU would like to find a better conference then the Mid Con but it might be the right fit to begin the DI journey especially if SDSU and Northern Colorado both come in at the same time.

What do you guys think, how likely is it that Utah St. and Idaho will be asked to join the WAC? If this happens will the Big Sky re-think their feelings about North and South Dakota State? If they do will they add UNC and Southern Utah to form a 12 team Big Sky with a North and South Div.? Lots of fall out could still happen depending on what TCU does.

Go South Dakota State!

Agreed.

For the record, Utah St. is alreayd set to join the WAC along with NMSU. It has been made public that should TCU join the MWC, LA Tech will join CUSA and the WAC will bring in Idaho.

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KingCal, do you happen to have a link that states the WAC will pull in Idaho if La. Tech joins C-USA. I would have thought N. Texas would be preferable.

The only reason I can think of to take Idaho over N. Texas is the MWC wants Boise and they will stay if Idaho joins the WAC (I can hardly see the Burros doing that though).

You can review the WAC related links in the WAC thread from the Conference Realignment Articles forum.

The only reason N. Texas was mentioned was in the event that LA Tech remained in the confernece. Should tCU join the MWC, LA Tech is rumored to be the #1 choice as a replacement in CUSA. The WAC has no reason to have 1 lone team outside of the conference footprint should LA Tech leave. It would make N. Texas the school all alone in the central time zone.

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If all this happens, don't you think the Big Sky will take another look at NDSU and SDSU? If the Dakotas get into the Big Sky, that all but kills the Great West and then what happens to UNC, UC-Davis, SUU, Cal-Poly, and St. Mary? I know there has been some talk of a 12 team Big Sky and you could then pick up UNC and someone else. But the California schools all have conf., just no football homes. Lots to still play out.

From the Saturday Forum:

College football: NDSU eyes football-only conference

By Jeff Kolpack
The Forum - 11/22/2003

Athletic directors from six Division I-AA schools will meet next month in what appears to be a serious step in forming a football-only conference.

North Dakota State athletic director Gene Taylor will be joined by representatives from South Dakota State, Southern Utah, Cal Poly, California Davis and Northern Colorado Dec. 8-9 in Las Vegas.

St. Mary’s College (Calif.) is allied with the group, but its athletic director will not be present. The agenda includes issues such as bylaws, schedules, conference management and possible names and logos.

“A little bit of everything,” Taylor said.

It will be the second meeting regarding the league. The same schools met in June at a national athletic directors convention in Orlando, Fla.

This time the group may get down to the fine details.

“It’s not a done deal at this point,” said Cal Poly Athletic Director John McCutcheon, “but I think all of us are encouraged by the nature and the spirit of the conversations. I’m real optimistic something will develop.”

Cal Poly, Davis, St. Mary’s, Northern Colorado and Southern Utah are independents in football. NDSU and SDSU will be starting their respective transition periods next year, most likely as independents in all sports.

“At this point, there doesn’t seem to be anything overwhelmingly challenging that lies ahead of us,” McCutcheon said.

That could change if the Big Sky Conference has a change of heart and begins looking seriously at NDSU and SDSU. Both would like to join.

But NDSU has to balance the issue of how long the school is willing to wait for the Big Sky vs. the probable formation of the new football league.

“If the Big Sky came knocking on our door, we obviously couldn’t say ‘let us join without football,’” Taylor said. “Yet, (the independents) are going to want a commitment.”

Asked if he anticipates any concrete resolution from the December meeting, Taylor isn’t sure.

“I don’t know if we’ll come out of it with a signed agreement or not,” he said.

Taylor said the proposed league might look to the Mid-Continent Conference to help manage it. Southern Utah is a member of the Mid-Con, which does not have football.

For a fee, the Mid-Con would act as the conference office and handle matters like statistics, media and NCAA regulations.

Most of the schools have already started scheduling each other. Davis has agreements to play the other six teams next year, according to The Davis Enterprise newspaper.

NDSU has UNC, Davis and St. Mary’s on its 2004 schedule -- all road games. Taylor said Cal Poly and Southern Utah remain possibilities.

It appears the earliest the league could get going with a full round-robin schedule would be 2005.

“It’s going to be fun to sit down and formally talk about some sort of conference,” Taylor said.

Here is the Sioux Falls, SD paper's take on this story:

http://www.argusleader.com/sports/Sundayarticle3.shtml

Football league moving forward
From staff and wire reports


published: 11/23/2003

Six athletic directors have scheduled another meeting to discuss forming a Division I-AA football conference.

Officials from South Dakota State, North Dakota State, Southern Utah, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, California Davis and Northern Colorado plan to meet Dec. 8-9 in Las Vegas.

The agenda includes bylaws, schedules, conference management and possible names and logos. St. Mary's College (Calif.) is allied with the group, but its athletic director will not attend.

"The game plan is to discuss issues," said SDSU Athletic Director Fred Oien said Saturday, adding that he thinks no decision will be made at that time to finalize the league.

This will be the second meeting regarding the proposed league. Oien said the officials will take details from the discussions back to their campuses for university presidents and coaches to fine-tune and analyze. Barring setbacks, a meeting to finalize the agreement likely will be held in January in Nashville when athletic directors attend the annual NCAA meetings.

"We're looking to go in with as much complete before making a final decision," Oien said.

The schools initially met in June at a national athletic directors' convention in Orlando, Fla.

NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor said he was unsure if the schools would come out the upcoming meeting with a signed agreement.

"It's going to be fun to sit down and formally talk about some sort of conference," Taylor said.

SDSU and NDSU will be starting their transition to Division I-AA football and Division I for all other sports next year, most likely as independents in all sports.

Cal Poly, Davis, St. Mary's, Northern Colorado and Southern Utah are independents in football.

"It's not a done deal at this point, but I think all of us are encouraged by the nature and the spirit of the conversations. I'm real optimistic something will develop," Cal Poly athletic director John McCutcheon said.

"At this point, there doesn't seem to be anything overwhelmingly challenging that lies ahead of us."

That could change if the Big Sky Conference begins looking seriously at NDSU and SDSU. Both schools would like to join the conference, which sponsors I-AA football and programs for the schools' other sports.

"If the Big Sky came knocking on our door, we obviously couldn't say 'Let us join without football,'" Taylor said. "Yet, (the independents) are going to want a commitment."

Northern Colorado is a full independent in all sports. Cal-Davis is joining the Big West, and the other schools are already members of other conferences for their remaining sports.

Taylor said the proposed league might look to the Mid-Continent Conference to help manage it. Southern Utah is a member of that conference, which does not offer football.

Most of the schools have started scheduling each other. Oien said the Jackrabbits have six games already under contract or agreed upon in principle for the 2004 football season.

Davis has agreements to play the other six teams next year. NDSU has games at Northern Colorado, Davis and St. Mary's on its 2004 schedule.

The earliest the new league could begin a full schedule would likely be 2005.

Here is an article about Sac State. It could have some effect on the Big Sky and if the Great West ever comes to be.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/7837383p-8778010c.html?session=v6pjQU9D6TJUkYA9q08YCnUxrp

Here is a story from UNC web site. They want to crown a GWC champ in 2004.

http://uncbears.ocsn.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/112503aac.html


UNC Investigating New Football Conference
Athletic Director's of the proposed schools set a meeting for Dec. 8-9 in Las Vegas.



The UNC football is getting closer to establishing a football-only conference by next season.

DALE BUBLITZ
Associated Press

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) - It didn't take long for Northern Colorado to start looking for another conference.

One year after cutting ties with the Division II North Central Conference, officials at Northern Colorado said Tuesday they are looking forward to exploring the possibility of forming a seven-team Division I-AA football conference.

Athletic director Jim Fallis said he plans to be in Las Vegas on Dec. 8-9 to meet with colleagues from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, UC-Davis, Southern Utah, North Dakota State and South Dakota State to discuss the possibility. St. Mary's College in California is the seventh school.

"I don't think any of us would go to the trouble of going to the meeting if we didn't think that there was some merit and that we didn't think we could put the thing together," Fallis said.

"There is enough commonality and it seems like it would be a good enough and competitive enough conference that everybody would feel comfortable with it."

The meeting is intended to see if the schools can agree on bylaws, rules and other details of running a conference.

"I think it's in the best interest of all the institutions, certainly because when you have a conference, it gives you some identification," Fallis said. "And also it makes it easier to make a connection with your boosters and your team in terms of who they are playing and that they are playing for something."

Ultimate approval would be up to school presidents and trustees. Fallis said there is no reason to wait until 2005.

"If everybody is in agreement, certainly by 2004 you could be playing a five-team championship," he said.

Earlier this week, North Dakota State athletic director Gene Taylor said the proposed league might look to the Mid-Continent Conference to help manage it. Southern Utah is a member of the conference, which does not have football.

North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Cal-Davis and Northern Colorado all are in the process of moving to the Division I.

North Dakota State and South Dakota State have expressed interest in joining the Big Sky Conference.

I think all three of the NCC schools (SDSU, UNC, NDSU)are going to be asked to join the Mid-Con sooner rather then later, thus all the pushing for the new 1-AA conf.