The WAC failed to keep the intermountain schools in the fold, and has failed to retain any southwestern schools. Loosing UTEP to CUSA is a dagger in the back for this league who can hardly find enough members to field a Western based Division 1-A conference.

I guess being rejected by North Texas says a lot about this WAC's "High Major" status in basketball. The second best men's basketball conference out west is the Moutain West with the UNLV and Utah programs. The Moutain West actually has better attendance than the PAC-10.

In the old basketball order, pre 2005 the high major conferences were Big East, Big10, CUSA, ACC, SEC, BigXII, MWC, PAC-10. Outside of these 8 conferences only 1 school has made a final four appearance and that was UMass in 1996 in the prior 25 seasons.In the new basketball order, the High Major Conferences are going to be Big East, Big10, ACC, SEC, BigXII, MWC, and the PAC-10. Nobody in the new CUSA has made it to the final four since Memphis in 1985.

When has any of the future WAC membership even made it to the elite 8? None that I can recall within the last 25 years. Gonzaga of the WCC has done it recently, Xavier of the A-10, and KentState of the MAC. The WAC is just a strong mid major conference like the MVC, A-10, CUSA, or MAC. To be sure a few programs like Fresno or Hawaii are High Major look alikes, but their conference is as a whole mid major.

I probably wouldn't have posted that link if not for reading an earlier story in which the new UTEP coach made grandiose statements about 2004-2005 being the best season in WAC history...

Utah led at halftime of the national championship game (1998) during its string of three consecutive NCAA appearances as a "2" seed (1997-1999), and I also believe that the Utes had another Final Four appearance as a member of the WAC (1966?), but granted this was in the pre-1975 "regional" era, in which conferences were limited to one tournament participant...

BYU had a regional final appearance in 1981, and I also believed that Utah and Wyoming finished in the final Top 25 that same season...

TCU was a "5" in 1998 (Utah in national championship game) and Tulsa was in a regional final (2000)...

WAC-2005 will probably exist on a level similar to the MAC, MVC, MWC, WCC, and a Dallas-based C-USA...I have trouble associating the A-14 with those conferences, but at the same time, I have trouble considering them amongst the ACC, BIG EAST-16, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac-10, and SEC...let's look at the membership roster...

Louisiana Tech: made some noise in the late 1980s under coaches (Andy Russo and Tommy Joe Eagles) who subsequently elevated to the jobs at Washington and Auburn...Sweet 16 appearance in 1985 (Karl Malone), being eliminated by regional finalist Oklahoma in OT....

New Mexico State: Final Four appearance (1970?) in Lou Henson's previous tenure, and some poll appearances in the late 1980s/early 1990s (Neil McCarthy?)...Sweet 16 in 1992...

Utah State: upset of Ohio State (2001?) in first round of NCAA Tournament...should have been included in last year's field...

Nevada: Trent Johnson took a better job (Stanford) after scoffing at suspicions that he would leave Nevada for greener pastures only a few months earlier...

Fresno State: national rankings in the early 1980s (Colson?) and during the Tarkanian regime...

Hawaii: a few NCAA appearances under Riley Wallace...

Boise State, Idaho, San Jose State: anyone? anyone? Idaho (Don Monson, father of Dan) had the Vandals in the national rankings in the early 1980s...

Not sure how Benson still has a job...the last commissioner of the Metro wound as the commissioner of the MIAA (D-II)...he seems to be losing his grip on reality...

I don't think that the Mountain West belongs among the either the High Major-Past or High Major-Future conferences, for one reason: Television exposure. Once the MWC went with College Sports Television, they essentially open themselves up to a possible raid by the Pac-10 (BYU and Utah) and/or the Big 12(Colorado State).
Those leagues have guaranteed exposure through established national outlets like FSN, ESPN, CBS, ABC, et al. CSTV IS growing at a faster rate than any other network out there, but ESPN, just as an example, will still be larger than CSTV ever will.

Infact, I read an article done by ESPN's Andy Katz a few weeks ago that says CSTV is NOT available in most of the MWC's home base (including the Dallas-Fort Worth area) save for DirecTV.

I'm not sure if ESPNU will be available
on DirecTV when it launches, but if it is, where will advertisers want to go to? ESPNU of course.

If Craig Thompson were smart, he should scrap the CSTV deal and sign one with FSN.




I disagree on this completely. The NEW WAC as a whole will be a lot more basketball-oriented. As such, it will be a very good High Mid-Major league, not a Mid-Major.

_________________
Do you ahhhhh......realign?

Theoretically, the Mountain West has always been vulnerable to possible Big XII/Pac-10 expansion...

How do you guys classify conferences in basketball? In the college football world its BCS, non-BCS, 1-AA. The line is drawn pretty clear.

What I usually hear from most fans is the groupings are High Major, Mid-Major, and Low Major. GophersRawk is using a classification of High Mid-Major?

Often the classification is drawn up conferences 1-10 are High Major, confernces 11-20 are Mid-Major, and conference 21-31? are Low-Major. Two questions with this thinking. One is that conference 11 may look a lot more like conference 10 than conference 12. Also year to year conferences flux in RPI rating especially those ranked 15 to 25.

This is how I divide it up:

High Major; First Tier Geographic Basketball conferences, with multiple programs with big followings. Big10, SEC, ACC, BigXII, Big East, PAC-10, and I would argue the MWC with big programs in Utah, UNLV, New Mexico and the first tier geography.

High Mid-Major; Leagues with 3 or more post season bids between the NCAA and NIT yearly. Many programs with decent followings of 5,000 or better, with most arenas high major caliber. A-10, WAC, CUSA, MVC, MAC. In the future it looks like the Colonial might step up to this level.

Mid Major; Scholarship Division 1 leagues that send only 1 or 2 schools to the postseason. Most schools with solid 5,000 seat gyms or better. Most conferences fall into this catagory.

Low Major; Non-Scholarship Division 1 conferences. Patriot, Ivy, SWAC, MEAC, Southland?