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Brett McMurphy, CBS Sports: Once-proud (and large) WAC on its death bed, and that's a shame
Western Athletic Conference
July 27, 1962-June 30, 2013
Here lies a conference who accomplished great things in its 50 years on Earth.
The WAC was taken too much soon.
It was a beloved conference.
And LA Tech will forever be the proud owner of 3 WAC football titles, including the last two. :icon_wink:Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawg06
Excellent article. Thanks for posting it.
Clearly, being a member of the WAC has been good for LA Tech. I saw a thread on the CUSA board today where several CUSA fans were sizing up the new invitees. A UTEP fan said, "well Louisiana Tech has by far the biggest name of these guys. They'll be a good member for CUSA".
I figure LA Tech owes some of that name recognition to the WAC. The WAC was great for spreading LA Tech's name (and brand) half way across the country.
HD
We are sitting at 29 total WAC championships right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by HogDawg
I'm hoping we at least win 33 WAC titles before it's over so we can pass Boise State to own the 8th most WAC titles of all-time.
The WAC was the best thing to happen to Tech football since Maxie Lambright. Look at the last 10 years, how far we have come and the schools we were privileged to be associated with and beat. I will always remember the WAC years fondly. Especially 2001 and 2011!!!
I won't miss Mr. Peanut.
I will miss the anticipation of taking on Nevada, Hawaii, Fresno and Boise - despite their distance. Generally we knew that these games would define where we were as a team.
For me, I hope we are in the east for C-USA because I think nationally the respect still lies with USM, Marshall and ECU. Plus, in this division I think we have a journalistic advantage because we will get more sports coverage from east coast sports writers than we would if our coverage was mostly confined to Texas.
I agree. From 02-08 the WAC was all we had.Quote:
Originally Posted by HogDawg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtGxusvUT3kQuote:
Originally Posted by Dawg06
He's a dufus!Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawgmatic
Hopefully we can get the Fresno rule changed for the last year.
I was in Hawaii last week for work. In deciding to take advantage of the night life, I ended up pretty close to the University. In the middle of a conversation, I asked some girl if she was a UH grad; she said yes. Asking where I studied, I proudly stated LA Tech. **Flinch** Then I conveyed how much I hate UH, those cocky bastards (the close losses are burned into my memory). She laughed thinking that I was joking.... I will miss playing Hawaii.Quote:
Originally Posted by garddawg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtGxusvUT3kQuote:
Originally Posted by TechAlum05
And then what happened Navybulldog??:DQuote:
Originally Posted by NavyBulldog1
Horizontal Haka!Quote:
Originally Posted by HogDawg
If I were in charge of the WAC, this is what I would try to do: Sit down the governors of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota and make a pitch that this is a prime opportunity for their states to have FBS representation. The WAC is basically a blank slate with teams in Washington, Idaho, and Colorado. If they can get those six schools, plus Idaho, and you have a solid foundation of like-minded schools to start from (flagships and land grants) with 7/10 members. If you can get New Mexico State to stick around, that's 8/10. From there, talk to UC-Davis and Cal Poly about FBO membership. If you can get them to go along, that's 9/10 or 10/11. The NCAA would probably bend over backwards to allow states with no representation in the highest division and so might grant whatever waivers are needed. Especially if governors and senators are involved.
Some of these schools took a pass last time around, but one of the big reasons at least for the Montana schools was the perceived instability and the hodge-podge nature of the conference. Recasting it as a "Big North" conference could bring them around. One of Montana's big points of frustration with the Big Sky is that there is only one similar school outside of the state. The Dakota schools could be very attractive (they lobbied hard for UND and USD and wanted NDSU and SDSU a few years ago). And with the California schools (as well as the northern schools) you can make the case that the village has been pillaged and no more losses are expected. This is the new conference and it should be remarkably stable. It won't be very good, but in Montana and the Dakotas could have regional significance as the state's conference. The Idaho Potato Bowl (or whatever) isn't particularly a demotion from the FCS championship, you can avoid the costly and money-losing FCS playoffs, and you can schedule more and more lucrative payout games with the Big Ten and Pac-12 and even some MWC schools coming to visit.
The hardest part would be selling the governors. Especially for Montana, which has a lame duck and an election coming up in November. But what is there to lose?
That seems to be the only viable strategy going forward for the WAC if it wants to continue as a FBS conference. Also, the WAC can try to have a "working relationship" with BYU for scheduling purposes.Quote:
Originally Posted by parialex
It's a longshot for the WAC, but it could be their only chance of being at least a little relevant in college athletics.