I say stick with Great West Conference. It will be hard to top that name. Possibly the Great West Football Conference.

The name Great West Conference has actually been used before... it was a 4 team D-I hockey conference in the early 90s... it consisted of Alaska-Anchorage, alaska-Fairbanks, Northern Arizona, and U.S. International.

Someone might still have the rights to the name.

Then go with Great Western Conference (has a railroad feel to it)

How about Western Sun? Though I do have my wonders about regional alignments and what happens if the Big Sky would step in, and what San Diego would think about joining this new league from the Pioneer League (yeah, I know it's non-scholarship, but it would definitely cut down on travel costs).There could be a possibility of swapping around teams (even after the conference forms) so that the Big Sky could pick up the Dakota Schools and UNC, while maybe giving up Sacramento State and either Portland State or Northern Arizona (I would think PSU would be the first to go, as NAU is an established football contender). The possibly the big sky and the Sun Coast conferences possibly?

How about the Wild Western Conference. ;D

_________________
The Bear may be dead but he still hates Tennessee. Roll Damn Tide

"The nobody wanted them conference"

My personal fav..."The Little Big Man Conference"

Cal Poly-SLO/CS-Northridge/CS-Sacramento/Southern Utah/UC-Davis (football-only) were members of this 1993-1996 conference that collapsed out of Bog XIIformation...

Big XII-WAC-Big West-Big Sky-American West

North Central Conference

Since trhe majority of the conference is moving to 1-AA why not keep the name - especially when there will not be enough schools left for the conference to function in D2.

Looks like its official...

http://greatwestfootball.ocsn.com/

Just like to update this thread some. St. Mary's College of California has recently dropped football and will no longer be a part of the Great West fooball conference. Very sad, but they cited a need to reallocate resources for the rest of their athletic programs.

I think they should think about expanding this conference to basketball and whatever other sports these schools have. The Division I newcomers have been unsuccessful so far in securing homes for those sports. Every independent (or future independent) in the West should just join up as one conference, locations notwithstanding.

GREAT WEST CONFERENCE
- North Dakota State *
- South Dakota State *
- Northern Colorado *
- Denver
- Texas-Pan American
- TAMU-Corpus Christi
- Utah Valley

- (maybe Southern Utah * if they would leave Mid-Con)

- football-only members: Cal Poly * and UC Davis *

The biggest wild card would be if Sacramento State * leaves the Big Sky for the Big West (football-only to Great West), which might open up a Big Sky spot for Southern Utah.

posted this in the Misc. Conf. a couple weeks back. I don't know if it will be for strictly basketball, or if other sports will be involved-

While a formal conference isn't in the works, an "affiliation" amongst the following schools is in the works:

NDSU
SDSU
UNC
Texas Corpus Cristi
Texas Pan Am
Utah Valley State
Ft. Wayne

It was a news feature on one of the Fargo, ND (NDSU) stations a week or two ago. Basically, it's an agreement for the independent schools to help fill out the basketball schedule for the next couple of years

While a scheduling affiliation is nice, these schools would be better off with more than that. They're all holding out hope of joining established conferences, but that just may not happen. If they form their own conference now, by the time the new schools become fully NCAA compliant, the conference should be eligible for automatic bids anyway. As for the current independents, they have no hope for NCAA bids in most sports right now anyway, so they would still be better off in a conference.

This could probably be expedited if Sacramento State did indeed leave the Big Sky for the Big West. This would open up a spot in the Big Sky for Southern Utah. IPFW could then take their place in the Mid-Con.

That leaves, once again, the following:
- North Dakota State *
- South Dakota State *
- Northern Colorado *
- Denver
- Texas-Pan American
- TAMU-Corpus Christi
- Utah Valley
- (football-only: Cal Poly *, UC Davis *, and Sacramento State *)

If the Big Sky were to only take Southern Utah to replace Sacramento State in the event of a departure, it would send a clear message that they don't want the three newcomers. It seems as though forming a new conference would be their only recourse at this point since it's probably unlikely that the Mid-Con would expand to 14 or 16 schools.