Would WAC Football only work?

[JAY]

If the WAC invited Idaho as its 8th all sports team, could we stay on as Football only?

The WAC could invite Denver as the 9th basketball team, or they could stay at 8.

We would have several options for our other sports:

1. Petition the 11th best basketball conference in the country, the Missouri Valley Conference, for membership.

2. Try to join the Sunbelt or Southland as a non football member.

3. Petition the Mid Continent for membership. Centenary and Oral Roberts are members.

4. Independent.

We wanted the WAC for football. The travel in the other sports is what is hurting us. I am sure the other WAC schools would gladly let us drop our other sports from their league because it would save them travel dollars as well.

[techfreak]

Personally, I would go for that. I don't know if the WAC would agree or not.

At this point, I would not mind seeing Tech being a football only participant in the WAC. If we could swing that and an "all-other sports" membership in the Sun Belt (Man, I can't believe I'm saying this) things probably wouldn't be so bad.

Seeing as though Tech really doesn't intend on putting the required money behind sports that are not football or basketball, the Sun Belt makes the most sense when you consider travel distance and the caliber of schools in that conference.

The biggest down side to that is the fact that the Sun Belt will soon be in need of a football school to be a legit Div. 1A conference. I believe they will need 8 teams and with Tech not as a football school they wouldn't make the grade.

So... who knows what would happen?
I can't see Tech swallowing its pride and going all in with the Sun Belt. I don't see the Sun Belt letting us in if football is not in the package. So... we're back to square one. I'd still like to see us with the above scenario though.

That's my $0.02.

TF!

[JAY]

we wouldnt have to settle for the sunbelt(16).

if we couldnt get in the missouri valley(11), the mid con is rated 21 out of 32 conferences and the southland is 29. not great options, but options.

like u said, its not like our administration cares about other sports anyway, they could save a ton of money in the southland while they waited for something better.

how cheap would travel be in this conference:

southland conference

texas division:
utsa
uta
south texas
sam houson
stephen f. austin
lamar

louisiana division:
louisiana tech
ulm
northwestern
southeastern
nicholls
mcneese

[weunice]

I would only go for this is the MVC was the conference we would be getting into. That would allow us to keep football in the WAC and keep basketball at a higher level than the SBC. That said, I still think that the travel is going to kill us since football is the ONLY sport that can even make money for us.

If we want to start pouring big bucks into mens basketball that is one thing, but if we are going to do this just to prevent from falling into the Belt, then we need to realize that this solution is really no better. We need a plan to upgrade the Dunkin Dawgs schedule or there is no reason for the MVC to consider us weighting down their RPI.

[JAY]

all of the mvc teams are 1000 miles away or less.

nmsu is the closest wac school left, and they are the only ones that are close to 1000 miles away. everyone else is around 2000 miles away.

i think we would a lot of money in the mvc.

[NathanDarby]

all of the mvc teams are 1000 miles away or less.

nmsu is the closest wac school left, and they are the only ones that are close to 1000 miles away. everyone else is around 2000 miles away.

i think we would a lot of money in the mvc.

I don't think the MVC, although a really good conference basketball-wise, would be much better in regards to travel than the WAC. The most important thing in talking about travel isn't necessarily how many miles away some place is. The key is whether it is a bus trip or a plane trip. A plane trip of 1000 miles isn't much (if any) cheaper than a plane trip of 2000 miles, whereas a 300 mile bus trip is a LOT cheaper than either plane trip.

[JAY]

Southern Illinois (Edwardsville, IL) – 600 miles - bus
Creighton (Omaha, NE) – 1000 miles plane
Wichita St. (Wichita, KS) – 600 miles- bus
Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA) – 1000 miles - plane
SMS (Springfield, MO) – 400 miles - bus
Bradley (Peoria, IL) – 750 miles - either
Drake (Des Moines, IA) – 1000 miles - plane
Indiana St. (Terre Haute, IN) – 750 miles - either
Evansville (Evansville, IN) – 600 miles - bus
Illinois St. (Bloomington, IL) – 750 miles - either

those places arent a lot further than mtsu, troy, usa, fla int, fla atl. omaha and des moines are probably not that hard to fly into. add wku into the mix and i think the mvc is doable.

[NathanDarby]

Southern Illinois (Edwardsville, IL) – 600 miles - bus
Creighton (Omaha, NE) – 1000 miles plane
Wichita St. (Wichita, KS) – 600 miles- bus
Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA) – 1000 miles - plane
SMS (Springfield, MO) – 400 miles - bus
Bradley (Peoria, IL) – 750 miles - either
Drake (Des Moines, IA) – 1000 miles - plane
Indiana St. (Terre Haute, IN) – 750 miles - either
Evansville (Evansville, IN) – 600 miles - bus
Illinois St. (Bloomington, IL) – 750 miles - either

those places arent a lot further than mtsu, troy, usa, fla int, fla atl. omaha and des moines are probably not that hard to fly into. add wku into the mix and i think the mvc is doable.

I agree it could be feasible, but 750 miles is a heck of a long bus ride....at least 12 hours. 600 miles is going to be at least 8 or 9 hours. Does anyone know what the longest bus trips our basketball, baseball, etc. currenty take are? Where does Tech currently draw the line between a bus and plane trip?

[JAY]

good question. 600 miles might be the limit. here is the distance to the sunbelt schools:



Florida International, Miami, FL – 1200 miles

Florida Atlantic, - 1150 miles

Troy St., Troy, AL – 450 miles

South Alabama, Mobile, AL – 350 miles

Middle Tennessee, Murfreesboro, TN – 600 miles

Western Kentucky, Bowling Green , KY – 600 miles



ULL Lafayette, LA - 200 miles

ASU Jonesboro, AR – 300 miles

UALR, Little Rock, AR – 200 miles

UNO New Orleans, LA – 350 miles

UNT Denton, TX – 300 miles

closer. but not too much. the question is: Is it worth the extra travel cost to be in the 11th ranked mvc or the 16 ranked belt. i think either would be a better value than the 10th ranked, and very far away wac.

the second question is, would the subelt take us as non football? if not, the next two on the list are the 21st ranked mid con with centenary or the 29th ranked southland.

[asuwon]

Personally, I would go for that. I don't know if the WAC would agree or not.

At this point, I would not mind seeing Tech being a football only participant in the WAC. If we could swing that and an "all-other sports" membership in the Sun Belt (Man, I can't believe I'm saying this) things probably wouldn't be so bad.

I'm fairly certain that a "all-other sports" membersip in the Sun Belt is an impossibility.

The Sun Belt has a rule that any Sun Belt member which sponsors Div. 1-A football must participate in the Sun Belt as a football member.

[altadawg]

I would be very much in favor of WAC in football and everthing else in the Belt. If it is even remotely possible, it should be explored even though I'm sure is a longshot.

ASUwon (when? where?), save your breath, not interesting in debating this with you. Your not a president or the commish last time I checked.

[RealityCheck]

Southern Illinois (Edwardsville, IL) – 600 miles - bus
Creighton (Omaha, NE) – 1000 miles plane
Wichita St. (Wichita, KS) – 600 miles- bus
Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA) – 1000 miles - plane
SMS (Springfield, MO) – 400 miles - bus
Bradley (Peoria, IL) – 750 miles - either
Drake (Des Moines, IA) – 1000 miles - plane
Indiana St. (Terre Haute, IN) – 750 miles - either
Evansville (Evansville, IN) – 600 miles - bus
Illinois St. (Bloomington, IL) – 750 miles - either

those places arent a lot further than mtsu, troy, usa, fla int, fla atl. omaha and des moines are probably not that hard to fly into. add wku into the mix and i think the mvc is doable.

The Southern Illinois main campus is in Carbondale. The Edwardsville campus doesn't play in Division I.

[JAY]

good. carbondale is 20 miles closer to ruston.

my whole point is: wac football is the highest level we can play in right now. we need to stay in the wac for football. we need to decide what level we can afford to play in our other sports.

1. spend a lot and stay in the wac.

2. spend a little less in the mvc

3. spend a little less in the sunbelt.

4. spend even less in the southland.

[weunice]

I am going to use the schools you presented, thus no Denver and ULM.

I have to disagree with the "closer but not too much" angle. SMS is the closest MVC school to us and there are SIX SBC schools within that distance from Tech, most over 100 miles closer. Those are all bus rides. The MVC has 9 schools at 600+ miles from us. The SBC has 4.

Someone check my math but I make far more SBC games than MVC games if that is where we end up.

Now compared to the WAC, the MVC seems like north Louisiana high schools as far as travel goes.

[TXDAWG81]

Doesn't the WAC need our baseball team to have the required # of teams to maintain NCAA recognition? Don't we have some cards to play as the WAC moves forward with re-alignment?