WAC No More

#1
TrueOrange

TrueOrange

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#1
Due to the recent plucking of their members (and future members) by other conferences (Mountain West, CUSA, Sunbelt) (and also the lack of teams to add themselves) ESPN (through citing the Denver Post) has said that Western Athletic Conference has announced it plans to drop football after this season.

Idaho has announced it will (try) to become an independent.

New Mexico State hasn't announced how the university plans to act in turn. The conference still needs 2-3 more schools to maintain NCAA Division 1 recognition as a non-football conference.

Commissioner Jeff Hurd says it's 'unlikely' WAC competes in football - ESPN

DENVER -- The commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference says it has become apparent the league is "unlikely" to have enough football members to compete next season.

Jeff Hurd tells The Denver Post the conference is now emphasizing simply having enough members to remain a Division I non-football league.

Hurd told the newspaper that in July "it became apparent that it was unlikely we could continue with football."

The WAC still needs to add two to three new members for 2013 in order to have the seven required by the NCAA to be a Division I conference.

Hurd says the conference will do everything possible to avoid shutting down, but "there aren't any obvious answers out there."

The WAC now has seven football members, though five have plans to leave next year.
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#2
#2
Though I do have to add that while ESPN has gone ahead and reported it on their scrollbar as such, it might not be so cut and dry:

WAC calls halt to football sponsorship after this season

UPDATE: In a tweet posted at 5:41 ET Monday, Brian Murphy of The Idaho Statesman in Boise, reported the following:

Hurd: "We didn't make any announcement that we were quitting football." Admits it will be difficult to keep football going.

--------

Confirming what had seemed a fait accompli for several months, the Western Athletic Conference will not sponsor football after this season, Commissioner Jeff Hurd told the Denver Post on Monday.

Hurd also said the league might fold altogether if it cannot find more non-football members. The league would need seven members to remain official in the eyes of the NCAA.

"If we can't get enough league members, we can't operate as a conference," Hurd told the Post. "We're going to do everything possible to avoid that. There aren't any obvious answers out there."

Hurd said a announcement on the league's final fate could come as soon as next month.

His announcement comes in the wake of the University of Idaho receiving approval from its state board of education to pursue an independent football schedule in 2013 as well as authorizing the school's leadership to pursue membership in the Big Sky Conference for other sports.

The WAC marked the 50th anniversary of its formation last month.

The league lost Boise State to the Mountain West two years ago, and Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii followed suit this year, although Hawaii is in the Mountain West for football only.

Next year, defending WAC football champ Louisiana Tech heads for Conference USA, and San Jose State and Utah State are going to the Mountain West.

Two schools just starting as WAC members this year, Texas State and Texas-San Antonio, are leaving next year for the Sun Belt and C-USA, respectively.

The one left without a chair when the music stops is New Mexico State, where football coach DeWayne Walker is in his fourth season. The Aggies left the Sun Belt for the WAC in 2004. They haven't had a winning football season since 2002 and haven't been to a bowl game since 1960.

New Mexico State athletics director McKinley Boston told the Las Cruces Sun News on Monday that the Aggies will also operate as an independent program in 2013 "unless something happens."

The WAC had added the University of Denver (Sun Belt), Texas-Arlington (Southland) and Seattle University (independent) this year for sports other than football. UT-Arlington already has announced a move to the Sun Belt for next year. In September 2011, Cal State-Bakersfield (independent) had accepted an associate membership for baseball.

At its peak in the mid-1990s, the WAC was the biggest league in Division I in terms of members with 16 and it had teams as far as east as Dallas-Fort Worth and as far west as Honolulu.
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#3
#3
New Mexico State should drop football and use their players as Mules to run drugs across the border to fill the AD coffers.
 
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#4
#4
See what the greed of Texas started... It trickles down to Idaho and new Mexico state being scuttled
 
#7
#7
The WAC and MWC should just merge with the Sun Belt...let the smaller guys do the "super" conference first to see how it will hold up for the bigger schools.
What do they have to lose?
Because BCS or no BCS...there is no way in Hades that anyof these schools have a chance at a National Championship...be it the BCS or the Playoffs. So if maybe the smaller schools form their own Super conference and one of the teams come out unscathed, then they can turn their heads to who ever picks the playoff teams and say. "ok...now what do you want us to do?"
 
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#8
#8
grimvol said:
The WAC and MWC should just merge with the Sun Belt...let the smaller guys do the "super" conference first to see how it will hold up for the bigger schools.
What do they have to lose?
Because BCS or no BCS...there is no way in Hades that anyof these schools have a chance at a National Championship...be it the BCS or the Playoffs. So if maybe the smaller schools form their own Super conference and one of the teams come out unscathed, then they can turn their heads to who ever picks the playoff teams and say. "ok...now what do you want us to do?"
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This is their best bet actually.
 
#9
#9
grimvol said:
So if maybe the smaller schools form their own Super conference and one of the teams come out unscathed, then they can turn their heads to who ever picks the playoff teams and say. "ok...now what do you want us to do?"
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Bigger conference of crap teams does not equate to tougher schedule. They still have the same 12 game schedule as the big boys.

Agree with the rest of the post but the last sentence.
 
#10
#10
grimvol said:
The WAC and MWC should just merge with the Sun Belt...let the smaller guys do the "super" conference first to see how it will hold up for the bigger schools.
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The WAC already tried it. Less than 15 years later, they are giving up football.
 
#12
#12
Rocky_Top_Vol13 said:
sad that any school would give up football really....
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Nobody is that I know of. Everybody else moved on, it's just a strong likelihood that NMSU and Idaho will have to drop football to FCS

Nobody will shed a tear, the two programs have like five total seasons of winning football between them in a total of about 50 combined seasons of D-IA/FBS football.
 
#13
#13
bamawriter said:
The WAC already tried it. Less than 15 years later, they are giving up football.
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Yep, they were the first 16 team conference weren't they....and then a few years later half broke off to form the Mountain West.

I don't see why New Mexico St. can't just go back to the Sun Belt. Idaho I defintely see dropping to FCS, which would be better anyway. Their biggest rivals are already there.
 
#14
#14
milohimself said:
Nobody is that I know of. Everybody else moved on, it's just a strong likelihood that NMSU and Idaho will have to drop football to FCS

Nobody will shed a tear, the two programs have like five total seasons of winning football between them in a total of about 50 combined seasons of D-IA/FBS football.
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Didn't Idaho's board just vote on the school adopting an independent-style schedule or something?
 
#15
#15
VolsSportsFan said:
Yep, they were the first 16 team conference weren't they....and then a few years later half broke off to form the Mountain West.

I don't see why New Mexico St. can't just go back to the Sun Belt. Idaho I defintely see dropping to FCS, which would be better anyway. Their biggest rivals are already there.
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Idaho was also in the Sun Belt for a little while. I'm pretty sure the Sun Belt is trying to stay regional. Even after the additions, their membership is basically within the same footprint as the SEC. I doubt they'd want to go to Moscow or Las Cruces.
 
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#16
#16
TrueOrange said:
Didn't Idaho's board just vote on the school adopting an independent-style schedule or something?
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I give that about two years before they run broke and go back to the Big Sky... Either that or profit from a ridiculously difficult schedule every year and forgo ever winning anything
 
#17
#17
I would miss idaho on ncaa video game. I often like building a dynasty with them. I like the Kibbie Dome.
 
#19
#19
It would be a great time for Long Beach St, Cal St Fullerton, and Pacific to start their football programs up again.
 
#21
#21
Just my 2 cents from a guy who has lived through the WAC and MWC days.

It is a sad day to see the WAC is folding. They were a conference ahead of the times with a 16 team conference that is now the norm. This is only the start of the sinking ship. The MWC is next... which again the MWC was ahead of it's time having a TV network dedicated to the conference. Western conferences cannot catch a break... This has become a war of attrition between the BCS conferences and the non-BCS conferences. They're going to out last us because they have more money. It's just a matter of time before we all sink. SDSU, Boise...going to the Big East won't make a difference. The MWC ship is sinking but it'll just be a matter of time before the Big East has the same fate. In 10 years we'll all be in some 2nd tier division of football. It looked like for a VERY brief period of time that both the BE and MWC might be able to hang on at the highest level. The losses of TCU, BYU, Utah pretty much threw that out the window. Boise would have helped, but only if the other schools would have stayed as well. BE, CUSA, MAC, Sun Belt are all in the same boat as far as trying to keep up, but ultimately i don't see even the BE making the cut once a division for the Big 4 is established. BYU is in a precarious position but have the resources to stay afloat while all this is sorted out. BYU joining the BE would be a mistake, they must hold out for the Big 12 or one of the big 4. Idaho and NMSU are not going independent by choice, I can assure you of that.

Everything is about market size these days, winning is only secondary. SDSU is a prime example of this. I honestly wonder how many people in San Diego really care about the Aztecs... for that matter how popular is SMU in dallas or UH in Houston? I applaud Boise for being about the only school who has done it by simply winning.

I'd put the deep pockets of our oil rich boosters and facilities of Wyoming up against almost any school (per capita). The double edged sword for me is if we increase market size, that means more people. What makes Wyoming great is that we don't have a market size but every person in this state bleeds brown and gold. War Memorial becomes the 3rd largest city in the state when full at only 30k. Per capita, not to bad for market size.

College sports is shifting from amateur to professional at just a slow enough rate for the masses to not catch on and call for reform. Either some sort of equilibrium happens in college football or I say throw the white flag for any school not in the big 4 conferences.
 
#23
#23
Velo Vol said:
???

Rutgers and Northwestern are in great markets, but aren't hot commodities. They don't win enough.
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They will stay up though, Northwestern similarly to Vandy because they have been major conference members since the beginning, and Rutgers has just enough market to stick around.
 
#24
#24
milohimself said:
They will stay up though, Northwestern similarly to Vandy because they have been major conference members since the beginning, and Rutgers has just enough market to stick around.
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My point exactly. Those two are already in sustainable conferences, especially Northwestern. I would assume Rutgers is looking to join the ACC as the BE ship is already taking on water...

The point is teams like Northwestern or Vandy don't have to have on field success, they just need to stay latched onto the Big10/SEC

Texas A&M has not had much on field success yet they get an invite to SEC. In fact it's the opposite, they provide a Texas market and a recruiting footprint for the SEC. The conference itself could care less if A&M ever wins a damn game.

Same goes for Colorado. CU is arguably the worst BCS team the last decade but yet they are invited into the PAC12
 
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