It would be better if Boise State and San Diego State follow Hawaii on joining the Big West for all sports, and still competing in the Mountain West for football only.

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Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

I could not disagree more. The goal should always be to have all-sports conferences and stay away from hybrids, in my opinion. Its one thing to have a single "hybrid" option like ND in the ACC or Hawaii in the MWC. But for Boise St. and SDSU to downgrade their basketball to the Big West versus being in the MWC where their football is...not a wise option in my opinion.

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I can understand your point. But then Hawaii should be an all-sports member of the Mountain West instead of only football. After all, along with Boise State and San Diego State, were all former members of the now-defunct FBS football-sponsoring transitioning to D-I non-football conference within the WAC.

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Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

Again, I disagree. Hawaii is expensive for the other schools in it's conference. They already have to subsidize the member schools of it's conference. Are they a benefit for football? Yes, since only 4-5 schools need to travel there. Also, for football, if you schedule Hawaii, you get to play an extra game each year (=more $$$). But for basketball and your non-revenue sports, the benefits are minimal.

It's also a pain just getting there.

So if it means for football, sure, there are benefits. But for other sports, Hawaii is a problem. That is why the MWC didn't invite them for all-sports, just for football. For the Big West, the subsidies help them financially. But the MWC has TV money that makes them less attractive as a member.

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Then Hawaii should had gone Indepedent for football. And despite the economic and TV stuff, it's awkward to see "football-only" associate members on one conference while being an all-sports member for other sports in another conference WITHIN the D-I FBS sub-level (formerly I-A). The same could have been applied to Boise State and San Diego State when they planned to join the Big East on football and the Big West for all-sports, which both had chose to revert and maintain in the Mountain West.

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Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

There are only two FBS conferences that make sense for Hawaii, the MWC and the PAC12, other than those there are no options for full membership. IF the PAC12 (full of big schools in major metro areas) offered Hawaii as a full member they'd obviously take it, but they didn't and the MWC offer them a fb only membership which works out best for everyone.

The MWC isn't full of top metro area with big airports where team can simply fly in and out, they are smaller airports and in some cases an hour plus bus ride. This wear on the team enough but add in a 5+ hour (I think) from Hawaii and it becomes even more trying to the MWC. That's why they offered them a fb only. Hawaii gets the benefit of being ina good fb conference while flying the shortest possible distance to the Big West schools in all other sports which will be easier for them to compete in too. The Big West adds a recognizable name thats a great schoos to boot to their conference, and the MWC adds a fb only team that lets them have a CCG without scraping the bottom of the Mnt/Pacific time zones for UTEP, NMSU, Idaho, or FCS upgrades.

Just because you don't like ND in the ACC, Navy in the BE or UMass in the MAC doesn't mean its not beneficial to those schools to be in a hybrid situation. Most of us understand that the majority these affiliations are mutually beneficial (obviously the old Big East took it to an extreme with 8 nonfb schools and trying to get 8 fb onlys). And BTW this happens in tons of other sports, go to wiki and look up a couple of conferences and see how many affiliate members (i.e. fb only, baseball/softball only, LAX only, swimming only, rowing only, soccer only members) other conference have.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac12#Affiliate_members
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_Confer ... te_members
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUSA#Affiliate_members
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_At ... te_members
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_A ... te_members
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_West_C ... te_members
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast ... te_members
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_V ... te_members
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Atla ... stitutions

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Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

The WAC may still be on the verge of collapse in 2014 or 2015 depending on what happens with New Mexico State. Replacing Idaho with NJIT allows the WAC to survive, but the WAC can't get to seven members of Division I if NMSU leaves (Grand Canyon is transitioning and won't count for four seasons).

If that happens I would expect some pressure to take CSU Bakersfield rather than leave them marooned as an Independent.

Bakersfield accepted a WAC invite already.

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I was talking about the BW taking CSUB, but after today's move by UMKC, the WAC isn't going anywhere.

Big Sky is not taking Grand Canyon.

Outside of Idaho, and this is only with the assumption that a) they fit the footprint, b) flagship school with value, c) they will likely drop to FCS in the future, no school without football is getting into the Big Sky.

Ah, I meant that CSUB wasn't slumming it in Independent land any more. They're in the WAC, even though the WAC is basically the Great West now.

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It just occurred to me today that the Big West would benefit from shedding UC Davis. With Pacific gone and Sac St in a stable Big Sky, there are no options for the Big West in Northern California.

Dropping UC Davis would be good for keeping the UC/CSU balance as well since the BW will probably want to add UCSD now that SDSU is out.

So I wonder if NDSU and SDSU get invites elsewhere, S Dakota could join with UC Davis to get to 14/14 (Idaho offsetting Cal Poly at least temporarily). Everyone seems to win there.

Still UC Davis is a really good school, I doubt the Big West would want to cut ties with them even w/o Pacific I think they'd rather add Sac St if they could.

I agree UCSD is still a target but I don't think it'll happen in the near future after the students vote down the fee increase.

And I completely agree that if the MVC takes NDSU/SDSU that the Big Sky would clearly target SDU especially if they are still saddled with NDU. Most probably NDU would be invited to the Summit and SDU would be invited to the Big Sky at the same time.

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Damn SJ, you're up there, you should know that BW has all the UCD sports and the Sky only has a few of them. It won't happen. longest BW trip minus Hawaii is around 7 hrs, In the sky all but Sac St. are a lot further.

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Yeah I know it's increased travel but with divisions it could be do-able. In a divisional split you'd have UCD, Sac St, E Wash, Port St, N. Arizona, Idaho, and Idaho St.

If you combine trips to E Wash and Idaho that makes that a little easier. Plus they gain Sac St which you and I know is a big rival of theirs while dropping the Hawaii trips (though those are subsidized). It is a bit of a step down in prestige I guess.

Anyway just throwing it out there. I was surprised that I hadn't noticed the Big West is almost completely a So Cal conference.