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Topic: How low can the WAC go?

Topic: How low can the WAC go?

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Pataskala
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How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 4/28/2012 4:55:03 PM

They've been sponsoring UT-San Antone in its move up from 1-AA to 1-A. Now on the eve of UTSA joining 1-A, UTSA is talking with CUSA. UTSA apparently has heard rumors that three other WAC schools are about to jump ship:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7866383/ut...

Apparently, UTSA would have no penalty for switching conferences, even though the WAC would have to redo its schedules for this season. How dumb (or desperate) can the WAC be? I'm glad the MAC is stable enough and smart enough to put in a penalty clause for 1-AA teams joining for football. (The article has some errors; it names LSU as a WAC team, instead of LA Tech; and Hawaii isn't mentioned at all.)

We will get by.
We will get by.
We will get by.
We will survive.

UpSan Bobcat
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 4/28/2012 5:42:05 PM

Pataskala wrote:

Hawaii is gone from the WAC after this spring, joining the Mountain West in football and the West Coast Conference in all other sports. Without UTSA, the WAC will be down to six football-playing schools this year: Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Texas State and Utah State.

Gallia Cat
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 4/28/2012 9:27:45 PM

WAC is dead in terms of football. CUSA and Sun Belt have been seriously compromised. Marshall and ECU are putting on the "we are committed to CUSA" face but they have to be completely dumb founded at how quickly CUSA has fallen apart. Marshall, ECU, USM, UAB and perhaps Tulane, need to forget CUSA. The geography of the league is a train wreck. Start from scratch.

Last Edited: 4/28/2012 9:32:31 PM by Gallia Cat

Casper71
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 4/28/2012 10:03:13 PM

NEWS FLASH TO MAC OFFICES: Call somebody respectable East of the Mississippi and North of the Gulf and invite them!

DXer
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 4/30/2012 12:22:50 AM

The Sun Belt appears to be unaffected. I'm not aware of any changes there. A news report has Charlotte starting football and petitioning to join the Sun Belt. Plus Georgia State (Atlanta) has been mentioned, too.

Also, one would think that Louisiana Tech would want to move to the Sun Belt from the WAC due to being a logical geographic fit.

anorris
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 4/30/2012 1:29:50 AM

Utah State, San Jose State rumored to the Mountain West, which will soon be renamed the WAC, then split in two (okay, maybe I freelanced that last bit).

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/29/rep.../

DXer
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/2/2012 10:41:48 PM

Latest news today has Charlotte skipping the Sunbelt and joining CUSA. CUSA appears to be going after schools in big-city markets - such as San Antonio, Charlotte, and Miami. Yes, Florida International (Miami) is mentioned as a prospect for CUSA. FIU draws in the mid-to-high hundreds for its basketball games.

Sunbelt is getting Texas State and Georgia State.

Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 9:58:26 AM

To answer the title of the thread:

Not as low as the MAC, apparently. The reason the WAC's falling apart is because it used to consist of good teams that were attractive to the expanding larger conferences.

Meanwhile, the MAC's still sitting here fully intact, hoping that if they don't make any noise the rest of FCS football will forget we're here and will still let us play.

The writing is absolutely on the wall for the MAC and OU's future as an FBS football team.

Casper71
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 11:59:37 AM

Absolutely agree. The lack of any apparent action by the MAC or any of its members indicates their lack of desire to be a serious player(s) in major college football. I just wonder how bad the final outcome will be for the MAC and the members because of this lack of desire to do anything...

Robert Fox
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 12:02:25 PM

Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame wrote:

The writing is absolutely on the wall for the MAC and OU's future as an FBS football team.

Maybe that's true, but I find it hard to believe. You would have to devise a standard that eliminates teams like Ohio and Toledo and Western Michigan, but does not affect teams like Marshall and Memphis and Houston. We've already seen the threat of attendance requirements, which have fallen by the wayside. It's just not easy to write a legally enforceable standard that results in MAC elimination.

Last Edited: 5/3/2012 12:02:55 PM by Robert Fox

Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 12:10:05 PM

Robert Fox wrote:

Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame wrote:

The writing is absolutely on the wall for the MAC and OU's future as an FBS football team.

I think you may have slightly misunderstood.

I'm not saying that the FBS is going to devise a standard that eliminates MAC schools. They'll gladly allow us to pretend we're still and FBS school and participate in their crappiest of bowl games. But we won't be eligible for their post season tournament , and if you're not eligible to be the champion of a league, what's the point of being in it? We'll be an FBS team in name only.

Teams from the BCS conferences will become the Globetrotters, and we'll be the Washington Generals.

C Money
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 12:55:12 PM

So...
Step 1: Get Athens back into the Columbus media market.
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profit!

Robert Fox
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 1:01:41 PM

In that case, I agree. However, I would like to see the MAC join with other similarly disenfranchised teams/conferences and raise hell with the NCAA if the future playoff arrangement leaves us out in the cold. The announcement of any kind of playoff could and should spark some kind of definitive and immediate reaction from the have-nots.

OUcats82
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 1:07:13 PM

Does anyone see the BCS eventually hitting an anti-trust situation?

Ohio-The State University

Robert Fox
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 1:24:49 PM

I'm no expert on anti-trust, so I can't say, but it does seem to potentially disenfranchise a number of institutions, rendering all the time and expense in building athletic programs as obsolete. And the action clearly benefits one group at the expense of another. To me, the introduction of a playoff, of any kind, prompts this legal review. If no playoff is instituted, and all remains status quo, than the have-nots have less to complain about since there is no absolute finish in college football: it's just polls and speculation.

A playoff seeks to implement a formal ranking, and it could be fair only if every team has equal access.

OhioCatFan
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 4:49:18 PM

Robert Fox wrote:

I can almost guarantee that this would happen under those circumstances. The NCAA is ruled by the Board of Directors (sometimes referred to as the Council of Presidents), which consists of all the presidents of, in our case, Division 1 institutions. That's something in excess of 350 schools. There are more "have not" presidents than "have" presidents. They often sit back on their hands and pass stuff that comes to them from lower levels of the NCAA bureaucracy without much debate or discussion, but when big issues come up like this they been known to be quite stubborn.

I think the institution most likely to be hit with anti-trust action is the cartel known as the BCS. Congress has held hearings on this in the past, and the AG of Utah is still pursuing a suit, started on behalf of Utah, but now continuing on behalf of Utah State and BYU. If, of course, the NCAA put into effect a 16-team playoff, that would effectively end the BCS cartel and action against them would become a moot point.

Last Edited: 5/3/2012 4:58:58 PM by OhioCatFan

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D.A.
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 5:08:05 PM

DXer wrote:

When I lived in Tampa in the '00's I went to see Ohio play FIU, and their gym was worse than Kent's dump and only slightly better than BG's old dump.

The Few, The Proud, The Bobcats!

And for the record, I hate tOSU, and Ricordati and Torgerson are DB's.

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D.A.
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 6:06:56 PM

On the vein of the CPA's thread on the hoops board about whether we are a hoops school, a FB school or both, I still believe that the MAC is the right place for OHIO, and that waiting for the dust to clear on the FBS/BCS/realignment fronts and then making the right move for BOTH hoops and FB is the right thing to do.

If I were commissioner Steinbrecher:

After season one in the MAC, put the full court press on UMASS for full membership
Then go after some additional east coast teams for all sports that can strengthen hoops, give an east coast flair to FB, along with providing some regional rivals for UMASS: 'Nova (probably a pipe dream but their hoops are down and they were this close to jumping to BE/FBS FB last year), Delaware, ODU (if they don't go CUSA), James Madison, William and Mary, Richmond (seeing as how the CAA, UMASS former FB conference, is on life support at this point), App State, and would love Army for FB (but they bring nothing in hoops
Then perhaps Southern Illinois and UNI to add to the western division

Not saying you would get all these schools to make the jump to FBS, but it is a nice pool of talent that has had some significant success in hoops and would bring more credibility to MAC hoops than they would FB, honestly. (and if you could thin the current MAC herd then all the better)

If FBS football were such a losing proposition, then why would so many programs be looking to make/have made the jump in recent years?

And if the WAC goes tits up, the BCS money to the MAC will just get larger (assuming no shenanigans to reshuffel the splits): http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/brett-mcmurphy/18920451/without-wac-other-non-aqs-will-earn-more-bcs-revenue

Absent Love winning powerball and endowing OHIO in a move to a BCS conference, I believe this is the best move for both sports.

NIU007b
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RE: How low can the WAC go?

Posted: 5/3/2012 9:47:11 PM

Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame wrote:

They had some good teams but the WAC would still be a viable conference if they didn't also lose mediocre schools like San Jose St, Wyoming, and a couple FCS schools that were about to join.

I'd rather be in a stable MAC than a conference that disappears overnight. The MAC didn't take as big of a hit as the other conferences did in football strength.

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