San Jose St and ULM don't belong but maybe one day they can improve after they drop back down.

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

is there any current news about the mwc's plans to invite some wac-west members? last i heard they were debating having 10 or 12 members and who exactly to invite (fresno, boise, nevada, hawaii, tcu, utep[least mentioned])

Latest news was that the presidential/commissioner committee had been given the go-ahead to check out possible schools, and had a detailed list of criteria by which to evaluate such schools. Check out the details on the MWC realignment/expansion thread.

:D

MWC will move on 5 november day after Big east's big move then watch what happens.

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

Do we think the WAC will go after sunbelt members NMSU, Idaho, Utah St, North Texas and Arkansas St. I just see them going after LA-Monroe, LA-Lafayette, MTSU or Troy St.

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

If MWC goes after Boise St., Fresno St., Hawaii and Nevada then CUSA goes after Tulsa, Rice, and SMU that leaves just 3 teams left in the WAC San Jose St., Louisiana Tech and UTEP.

So do we think that these schools will leave to go to the Sunbelt or will the Sunbelt schools leave for the WAC?

Or if CUSA gets Marshall and UCF they will need a 14th member go along that choice would be LA Tech.

That would leave San Jose St. and UTEP both of which would choose to go to the Sunbelt and along with newcomer Temple or Florida A&M create 12 team conference. But we will have to wait and see until election day.

The way I see it the WAC and Sunbelt merge and be called the SAC Sunbelt Athletic Conference or something similar.

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

If CUSA raids 3 teams from the WAC, which looks like it everyday.

Sunbelt and WAC may be forced to merge since 1 will be short of 8
Merger Senario ?-12
Leftover 12
EAST
MTSU, ULL, La Tech, Ark. St., Troy St., ULM

West
NMSU, Utah State, San Jose St., Idaho, North Texas
then odd one out of the following Nevada/Hawaii/Fresno/UTEP/Boise (most likely UTEP)

Left over 12 (1 out or League 13)
Move North Texas to East and dump the lowest attendence of the East teams

Left over 14-15
senario of 2-3 new independents/Div. 1-AA teams

Left over 16 (MWC only goes after TCU) you may see 2, eight team divisions, or WAC kills off Sunbelt Football

I only can see Hawaii or UTEP go Indy, if they don't want to be associated with these senarios.

Oddly enough that was how UTEP got into the WAC(1968) as an independent after seven years which had great years of Football and Basketball (esp. 1966) seasons in the 60's after the Border Conference disolved in 1961. Ironicly UTEP has faltered in Football since being in the WAC (3 winning seasions in 30 years, but when UTEP is .500 and above tickets are hard to come by).
UTEP is not that close to the MWC, El Paso only wanted UTEP in play spoiler to BYU in football and play New Mexico in Basketball. Other than that, there is bad blood and history with the teams in MWC. Look at 1998, the WAC-16's last year, had four teams in bowls San Diego St. (#2), BYU(#3), Air Force(#1), and TCU(#9 and best non-MWC team). TCU had the second highest payout of $1 million (Sun Bowl), which Air Force was first with $1.1 million (Liberty), the other two recieved $800,000. After what happened with the Sun Bowl, the MWC trashed UTEP in the press.

UTEP may not want to be in a conference with NMSU either after the rivalry halt. Since UTEP has a history of being left out; the west teams consider UTEP as an eastern team, while east teams consider UTEP as a western team.
Even the state of Texas doesn't consider El Paso as part of the state since several the laws in funding have a except the city of El Paso clause ::) and the only reason UTEP has athletics is because it is funded exclusively by donations and ticket sales.

Hawaii could be a better addition to a Pac 12 senario than the MWC, I might see Hawaii use a MWC expansion for its own well being.

That is my two cents.
But, everything is Wacky in the WAC.

After the 16-team fiasco, they are not going to go to 14+, and I think they will even stay clear of 12 until the see what the MWC does.

I expect they will grab the 3 "in the area" teams of ID, NM ST and UT ST because:
1. It gives them a buffer in case the MWC (or CUSA again) comes calling for a team or two.

2. Given none of the SB teams are going to help the TV deal, etc. their main issue will be keeping travel costs as low as possible.

I can see them grabbing North TX in place of one of those teams since It's the best of the SB and "sort of close" to UTEP and LA Tech

Of course, this will leave 6 SB teams without a conference. They, along with FL A&M would have to form some "unofficial conference" that would provide everyone 3 home games each, but #4 & #5 may be tough to set up.

I guess then you would see them trying to convince some 1-AA team to move up so they could get 8 members.

Luckily, even as a faux conference, they may still be able to keep the New Orleans Bowl, since nothing prevents the bowl from making at deal with 7 individual schools instead of a true conference entity.

Heard on a Fresno State radio station that the MWC will expand to only nine, and that one team will be Hawaii.
The radio announcer said that it comes from a reliable source that he knows from the MWC.

Interesting News from El Paso TX
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/sports/joemuench/20031017-33914.shtml

with the wac inviting utah st. and new mexico st. to get to nine, at least for now, i think that once la tech leaves, which i think they will, the wac will get either idaho or north texas. as long as the mwc doesnt expand, the wac is ok and i think north texas would be an excellent replacement for la tech if necessary. ntu would be a whole lot better than idaho imo because idaho is really struggling while ntu gets better every year.

ntu- provides decent access into texas and is a growing program, but would have poor geography with the rest of conference

idaho- logical geographical fit but is really struggling both on the field and with the 1-a requirements

if i were the wac and was looking for a school to replace la tech then i would get north texas instead of idaho. i would only take idaho if necessary.

Here is what I think will happen by Thanksgiving:

TCU and Boise State accept invitations to the Mountain West Conference.

Conference USA gets LA Tech to make up for losing TCU and keeps it's division with Rice, Tulsa, SMU, Tulane, et al.

WAC invites Idaho and maybe North Texas. I don't think North Texas will accept, though. Sun Belt is a good regional conference for them. It makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER for Idaho to be in the Sun Belt.

Then the WAC has 8 left. They would look to expand by asking Montana to move to 1-A? Maybe with Montana State as well?

The Sun Belt would need a few of the new Florida teams (FIU, FAM) to move up and into the conference. Maybe even Western Kentucky moving up its football conference.

I do think Idaho will be in the WAC before North Texas. Thoughts?

OwlAlum? They play their games in the Kibbie Dome and don't bring in any market whatsoever, and have been surpassed in the state of Idaho by an old junior college that wasn't even playing football until at least the 1960s. People on this board that are in a constant state of denial suck...

Yes, I'm definitely insane with my expectations and feelings about Idaho. I do think we might be better off at the 1-AA level. But I think the costs of going back down are too much. It would kill the athletics all together.

I think that Idaho can grow and given the proximity to Coeur d'Alene, Id and Spokane, WA, we could draw well. We did draw good crowds in the late 1980's. What do John L. Smith (Michigan State), Dennis Erickson (Oregon State, San Fran 49ers), Keith Gilbertson (Washingtong), and Chris Tormey (Nevada-Reno) have in common? They all started at Idaho.

I really think that if Idaho was in a better league, they would do better. The market is small, but are we any less than UTEP, San Jose State, New Mexico State, and Utah State? I think we are on par with those programs. Idaho has more followers than you might think.

"I think that Idaho can grow and given the proximity to Coeur d'Alene, Id and Spokane, WA, we could draw well. We did draw good crowds in the late 1980's. What do John L. Smith (Michigan State), Dennis Erickson (Oregon State, San Fran 49ers), Keith Gilbertson (Washingtong), and Chris Tormey (Nevada-Reno) have in common? They all started at Idaho."

They still play in the Kibbie Dome and other "mid-majors" have "produced" more coaches (e.g. Miami of Ohio)...