They might lose them very soon.....to the WAC.Originally Posted by EJ
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They might lose them very soon.....to the WAC.
How about a swap? ;-)
I like the idea of partnering with ULL, but NEVER, NEVER, NEVER should we ever consider an alliance with the JUCO in Monroe. I don't want to hear about them helping our attendance, finances, etc. Remember, you are only as good as the company you keep!
Bring ULL & UNT to the WAC!!!
WEST EAST
Hawaii LA Tech
Boise St. ULL
Fresno St. UNT
Nevada New Mexico St.
San Jose St. Utah St.
That will bring us back to 10 teams, and we can look at potential growth to 12 from there.....maybe Idaho and Troy St.
What a lot of you don't get is that throughout most of the nation Nevada , Utah State , heck to the casual fan not paying attention even Boise state carry as much weight as ULL and UNT.
Some of you so worried about our perception need to realize that UNT gets little or no press in DFW. BUT SMU doesnt even get close to as much press in DFW as UT and A&M. They don't get near the media attention CUSA would lead you to believe. I don't live in Houston but I'm sure it is the same with Rice.
People lump non-bcs schools together as a whole and don't see much difference between us. We need to just win games. And to be honest with you teams from the west coast don't peak the casual fans interest anymore than a game against middle tenn. st.
We are not gonna get recognition from beating WAC or Belt teams. Educated fans on this board know the difference between the WAC and Belt. The avg. fan(.....HELLO the fans that arent coming to our games) doesnt. So why not just 1) go in to the belt and kick some butt 2) take the travel savings and invest in our facilites 3)stop pimping our team out. Watch our attendance shoot up. People want to see a winner period. So what if we lose a hard headed fan who won't drive to Ruston to see us play a belt team. He will be replaced by two fans wanting to see a winner. (See Marshall) And that hard headed fan will be the first in line to come see us kick some CUSA butt in a bowl. We'll be first in line when the next round of talks begin.
(oh yeah...and fire JB3)
The NCAA Board of Directors plans to review the IA criteria in August for possible action. That can hardly be described as "in the process" of revoking anything.
Is counting on two IA programs that don't even exist yet--and may never--a new definition of "stability"?
Is Hawaii, Boise, and Fresno bolting for the MWC + SJST dropping ftball altogether, stable?
LOL!!!
JUst the fact that the attdce. requirement is under review ought to give you the "willys"
Not trying to fight with you friend.....
Hawaii, Boise, and Fresno were just jilted by the MWC for TCU, and San Jose State is dropping football at the same time Rice does.
And if the attendance standard is lowered, will it be low enough to get FIU and FAU into IA or keep MTSU in? Don't think for a second Wright Waters doesn't have the "willys" regarding that subject.
I'm not trying to fight you either. But it's not like the SBC already has seven other existing IA programs that are solid enough so that the addition of Tech would firmly put the SBC in IA for the forseeable future.
What kind of TV deal doea the Sunbelt have??? At least the WAC has a deal with ESPN. We do get some national exposure through that.
If we could convince the rest of the WAC to invite UNT, ULL, & ASU for the east; and Idaho for the west; we would have 12 and a championship game( of course, if they all said yes to the invite). We should also be able to grab the NO Bowl spot and maybe sew up the MAC/WAC spot in the GMAC(they lost their marquee name in Marshall). If Idaho isn't chosen, then we could approach Toy State and the divisions would look like this:
WAC East: Tech, UNT, ULL, NMSU, ASU, & Troy St (Utah State, if Idaho comes)
WAC West: Fresno, Boise, Hawaii, Nevada, San Jose, & Utah State (or Idaho)
We already have a known TV deal, we would increase the revenue with a Championship game; we would add a bowl game (maybe 2) & we would not have to align ourselves with ULM or the two Florida schools who are just barely out of 1-AA(maybe)......We get the cream of the 'Belt(I can' believe I said that) and we keep our ties to the better schools out west. I know that the MWC will come calling, but at least until that happens, we have a home??????
The WAC makes absolutely no sense for us unless there is an eastern division. One or two EWAC teams will not survive. Four to six would help with finances, regional rivalries and butts in the seats. Staying in the WAC the way it is today is just another way of burying our heads in the sand and thinking everything is hunky dorey. Unless of course, we are waiting for CUSA to go bankrupt so that we can pick up our old WAC brothers and maybe Houston and/or Tulane :P .
Plain and simple, we will not be going back to the Sun Belt ... at least for the next 2-3 years. Oakes has no intention of going to the Belt. We will stay in the WAC and hope that a "perceived" difference between us the top Sun Belt schools will make the difference when the next conference reshuffle takes place. Personally, I prefer this move. We all know there is very little difference between us and the Sun Belt schools other than perception. I'm afraid that if we move into the Belt, our recruiting will level off, then UNT and ULL would pass us up in the perception category (or at least in the amount of money raised and spent for capital improvements).
SK
It would be interesting to see this poll with only La Tech fans voting. Something tells a lot of SBC and WAC fans that stop by here, drop in a vote for La Tech to move to the SBC.
No, some of us realize that the only way we are going to grow a fanbase is to play games in our time zone. The options were simple. CUSA or SBC.
BTW, since UTEP left, apparently the WAC TV deal has been cancelled so that known TV deal is not known.
What's your source on the TV deal cancellation?
see Item # 1
from Fresno Bee :
We'll stay put, vow those left
Conference officials focus on expansion, TV deal.
By David White
The Fresno Bee
(Updated Wednesday, May 5, 2004, 6:10 AM)
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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Expansion, cable contracts, revenue sharing ... and golf.
These topics dominated the Western Athletic Conference's spring meeting of officials, athletic directors and faculty representatives, which ended Tuesday with a friendly round of golf after two marathon days of discussions.
Fresno State, Boise State, Hawaii, Louisiana Tech, Nevada and San Jose State vow to stay in the WAC -- though nothing is in writing -- and make the most of a bad situation (see four defections in six months and 13 since 1998).
How long the truce lasts is anyone's guess. If the Mountain West Conference decides to expand again, it's hard to imagine any WAC teams declining an invite.
"The only constant in college athletics anymore is change," Louisiana Tech athletic director Jim Oakes said. "The WAC has proven to be very resilient and will come out of this just fine."
The top news coming out of meetings in the desert:
1. Forget reports that the WAC and ESPN have a new TV deal.
A deal was all but done two weeks ago, but no more. Negotiations hit a snag when Texas-El Paso announced its departure Friday, two sources said.
ESPN apparently wants to pay less because the Miners' football team and new coach Mike Price leave for Conference USA in 2005. One athletic director described talks as "a little contentious."
WAC commissioner Karl Benson said it's a matter of time before a deal is done.
"ESPN will eventually make the announcement that we have received an offer," Benson said. He declined to reveal figures.
WAC athletic directors voted in April to accept a multiyear, $1 million deal that doubled its number of televised football and men's basketball games.
The soon-to-expire contract was worth $400,000 for a minimum of four football and two men's basketball games per year.
Once the new proposal is signed, expect to see Fresno State play nationally televised football games on Tuesdays and Thursdays. ESPN is offering those nontraditional nights to give the WAC the added exposure it craves.
A related argument has developed over revenue sharing.
Schools with more television appearances -- Fresno State is leading the charge -- want a bigger payout. Not all agree.
Returning members don't want to share appearance money with the four departing schools, all of whom might have to donate their television time during the lame-duck 2004 season.
2. The WAC is not the most unstable conference around.
Just when you feel sorry for the oft-raided WAC, consider: every time it is depleted by Conference USA, it does the same to the Sun Belt Conference, putting the Sun Belt at the bottom of the conference realignment food chain.
In October, the WAC grabbed New Mexico State and Utah State to replace Tulsa, Rice and Southern Methodist.
With UTEP going, the WAC will turn to Idaho, Louisiana-Lafayette or North Texas of the Sun Belt Conference.
The WAC could choose two for a 10-school format, but a nine-school format is most likely. Consider Idaho the early favorite because of geography, though talks have just begun and a decision isn't expected until June.
"You know how much it costs us to fly to Louisiana?" one athletic director said. "I'm not sure adding another team out there makes economic sense."
3. San Jose State expects to stick around.
Spartans athletic director Chuck Bell bristled at the school's recent Academic Senate vote to drop out of Division I-A competition. Same goes for NCAA guidelines that mandate an attendance average of 15,000 to play Division I-A football, starting this season.
The senate passed the same measure in 1993 to no avail. San Jose State interim president Joseph Crowley has said football's 110-year tradition is safe, according to Bell. But, Crowley will be replaced by new president Paul Yu on July 15.
"It means nothing," Bell said of the April 20 vote.
Bell doesn't think the attendance rule will pass legal muster. The Spartans averaged 15,080 last season.
"The NCAA will have to address that to avoid massive lawsuits," Bell said. "We made it last year ... so what? That rule won't stand."
Eleven Division I-A teams did not meet the proposed standard last season, including five from the Mid-American Conference.
4. Rice, on the other hand, could be in hot water.
Although the school's board of trustees announced Tuesday that "Rice should continue to compete at the Division I level," the small private school discussed other options, including dropping football or moving to a lower division.
The concern was big enough to keep Owls athletic director Bobby May in Houston during the WAC meetings.
"It's been awful for football because they've been on the road trying to recruit," said associate athletic director Cristy McKinney, who coaches the women's basketball team. "I had a local girl I signed early and her dad called, and they were very concerned."
5. Louisiana Tech won't face a recall election.
Some athletic directors came to the meetings willing to evict Louisiana Tech, which sits almost 1,000 miles east of its nearest competitor.
Oakes obviously made a compelling case because his peers now sternly reject the possibility.
That keeps the WAC at six baseball teams, the minimum needed to sponsor a sport.
If the number had dipped to five with a Louisiana Tech departure, it would have opened the door for Fresno State baseball to possibly rejoin the Big West Conference -- considered one of the top four baseball conferences in Division I-A.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. The reporter can be reached at dwhite@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6617.
Got any idea how much it costs us to fly out west for EVERY AWAY CONFERENCE GAME we PLAY!!!"You know how much it costs us to fly to Louisiana?" one athletic director said. "I'm not sure adding another team out there makes economic sense."
Geez, talk about a pity party. An AD griping over that and JO vows to stay in the conference with no mention of the extreme costs WE are going to have to swallow!
TDF
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