Some info regarding possible additions to MWC
...just putting old news together
Craig Thompson has stated 5-6 teams are in the mix, with the probabilty being good of only adding 1 or 2 of the group.
Here is the probable list of candidates and SOME of the possible ranking criteria
Dunkel Index / Ath. Budget / Education
Boise St. 18 12,644,097 Masters
Fresno St. 84 21,311,855 Masters
Hawaii 67 18,399,130 Doc. Ext.
Nevada 95 12,201,160 Doc. Ext.
TCU 62 13,235,255 Doc. Int.
UTEP 113 10,635,400 Doc. Int.

The Dunkel index is a power ranking system for college and pro sports.
http://www.dunkelindex.com/

Athletics budgets are based on those budgets for the entire school for both men's and womens sports.
http://chronicle.com/stats/genderequity/2002/operatingresults.php?comparetype=Division&searchtype=I-A&Order=tot_op

Education equates Doctoral Extensive higher than Doctoral Intensive followed by Masters programs.
As it has been pointed out before all but 2 current BCS schools are Doc. Ext.
http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/Classification/index.htm

Who doesn't want to vacation in Florida? and see a glorious college football game to boot? who needs those overpaid peewee players at next level? ;D

More info FWIW...

For the years 2000,2001,2002 (no figures for 2003)
Assuming again the 6 candidates, here is some attendence and stadium capacity and average attendence for those 3 years:

.............Capacity.....Avg Att.....% of capacity
FSU........41,031.......40,348...........98%
UH..........50,000.......38,165...........76%
UTEP......52,000.......33,795...........65%
TCU........46,000.......29,806...........65%
BSU........30,000.......26,091...........87%
UNR........30,545.......17,811...........58%

2003 data on another page:
http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/Internet/attendance/ia_attendance.html

EarthX,

Good link and info - thanks

Fresno State beat UCLA! Nice quality win again proving Fresno State is a solid team. Boise State also had an impressive bowl win.

It is time for the MWC to wake up and admit Fresno St. and Boise St. to the MWC. Why are they dragging their feet on this issue??

A better question is...
Why are they looking at TCU when they have better schools in their footprint?
On top of quality football, FSU is solid basketball power, and Boise is having a solid year this year.
The whole TCU thing makes NO sense. ???
Be careful what you wish for...
8-)

It makes more than NO sense, anyway. If TCU can make the kind of run Boise is making in football right now, and sustain it for some time, you have the potential of capturing interest in a larger market.

Yes, I used "potential", same as "if". It's a serious gamble, and I'd bet it doesn't make sense like the MWC thinks it will, due to the private school (and not a big one at that) aspect, also because Texas & ATM own the state.

Anyway, if you've lost patience and are asking why the MWC doesn't go ahead and add from elsewhere, perhaps it's because the plan is TCU or no expansion at all. If the TV numbers don't even change from an expansion, after all, why should current members lose money by expanding?

New News from internal WAC staff is that here is a couple of members from the MWC wanting back to the WAC. This could really change things in the west. You can see that the WAC may be stronger in ball by looking at the last bowl games and seeing B.Ball games between the two conf.

Just curious, what is "internal WAC staff"? A personal friend? A source in print? If so, where? This would be big news for any of us westies. Could you let me know where this is comming from? I could see the possibility of SDSU and UNLV at least looking into the idea, though I doubt too seriously. :)

Welcome to the board, Stiffer West. In the hierarchy of information/reports/rumors, this board sort of has the following pecking order:

1) information/reports/rumors supported by a specific news source, citing the actual url.., posted by a regular...

2) information/reports/rumors supported by a specific news source, citing the actual url..., posted by a guest...

3) information/reports/rumors without a specific source, shared by a regular whose track record all of us can check...

4) information/reports/rumors without a specific source, shared by a guest, whose track record no-one can check...

Hopes this helps you see where on the scale of reliable information yours ranked, and a very sincere invitation to upgrade your status in the hierarchy above...

:D

I have also heard the same, but certainly not from anyone I could claim as a reliable source and most of these so called grumblings are from posters on msg. boards.

Stiffer, I can only hope what you say is correct.

Have chewed on this for an hour, contemplating the logic behind such a scenario. In theory, I imagine a 12 member WAC, with a FB championship game, another bowl and/or more bball success, may be able to secure as much per team payout as an eight member MWC. In which case, knowing there's the Hawaii travel involved and given the WAC makeup, I could see UNLV and/or SDSU making such a move. I still rate the probability fairly low, but I could see it happening.

Even if those schools did move, I suspect Boise St. would still make a move to the MWC; The group of Air Force, CSU, BYU, Wyoming and Utah are still a solid bunch and BSU fits right in there. Apart from Fresno St. and Hawaii, that would leave the WAC still (on average, over time, IMO) just below the MWC in the fb pecking order. Other conference membership requirements not withstanding.

Possibly this is a ruse from the likes of UNLV, New Mexico and SDSU to keep their interests involved in the MWC expansion plans. I don't see TCU biting, and I think the MWC will ultimately take just Boise St. for now, with promises for more in depth studies for #10 and/or 11 & 12 later.

That's just me... :D

Brigham Young's 60,000+ stadium isn't going to lose national attention (and/or scorn) anytime soon.

That's at least one reason I can think of that it would take a lot more than 10 years of WAC dominance over the MWC before Boise State would think that the WAC is a better place than the MWC. The difference in exposure (as in actually having an ESPN game every week as opposed to occasional Fridays) is rather large. That's why Boise State would rather be in the MWC, and probably wouldn't change that mindset for 20 years if not chosen now.

Meanwhile, Boise did in fact watch Tulsa get smashed by Georgia Tech. The issue often brought up here is strength of schedule, and Boise is figuring out that the WAC really isn't all that.

The scariest scenario in Boise: TCU is the only MWC invitee, La Tech joins CUSA, and Idaho is picked to drag down BSUs strength of schedule THAT much more.

Pounder, Idaho gettng an invite to the WAC would not drop Boise St. SOS. Boise St. plays idaho every year anyway. T.V. Ratings for the past few years have been better for WAC games than for MWC games and I have also heard that the t.v. contract for the MWC will take a huge hit when it is up for negotiations again.