WAC keeps breathing: Southern Utah invited

[Spaztecs]

Interesting that everyone mentions numerous Big Sky schools except for the two most obvious and dominant teams in the FCS for over a decade.

[Billings]

1 hour ago, Spaztecs said:

Interesting that everyone mentions numerous Big Sky schools except for the two most obvious and dominant teams in the FCS for over a decade.

Because they are not going to join the WAC

[Spaztecs]

5 hours ago, Billings said:

Because they are not going to join the WAC

So, why would the WAC want the weak sisters of a Conference ?

Why wouldn't they want the more successful programs ?

[robe]

19 hours ago, MWC Tex said:

https://www.thespectrum.com/story/sports/college/2020/12/08/suu-western-athletics-conference-invitation-t-birds/6491139002/
 

WAC making moves to get FCS football.  Might get some Southland schools also per rumor.  
wonder if NAU gets interested in the WAC who will have a smaller footprint.

Chicago St must be leaving soon.

How many football teams now? 

[robe]

I found it. 2 ineligible FCS teams. 1 FCS team if they join and 1 FBS team. NMS could play 2 maybe 3 and still stay FBS. 
 

I always though BYU should play the WCC team for its FCS game. But those are non scholarship teams. It might be only San Diego. I think Pacific as well.

[jdgaucho]

Pacific dropped football in 1995.  

[robe]

2 hours ago, jdgaucho said:

Pacific dropped football in 1995.  

Then BYU should drop all the Utah FCS schools in football and play San Diego each year for the WCC title. 
 

on a side note Utah should do a holiday BBall tournament. 
 

BYU

Utah

USU

Weber

SUU

Dixie

UVU

Westminster

 

[MWC Tex]

2 hours ago, robe said:

How many football teams now? 

3 with the probability of 3 to 4 more.

Dixie

Tarleton

SUU (if actually move)

[FresnoFacts]

The WAC reorganizing as a geographically compact conference playing FCS would have a lot of appeal, especially for ADs looking at budgets.

[ViAggie]

Yep, going after Weber State too: https://www.ksl.com/article/50063697/southern-utah-seriously-considering-invitation-to-join-the-wac-but-other-schools-also-targeted-for-football-revival

[USU78]

On 12/8/2020 at 12:55 PM, dshawfan said:

But how is the ice cream down SUU's way? ;-)

There's a dairy branch in Beaver which isn't far from Cedar City

[SalinasSpartan]

Interesting. I remember posting here last year that the Big Sky and WAC should essentially get together and swap some schools so that the WAC could be concentrated in the Southwest and the Big Sky being concentrated in the Northwest; the Big Sky would basically send SUU and NAU to the WAC and get back Seattle, and then Weber, UNCO, Cal Baptist, and Sac State could all end up in either conference, as long as each conference ends up with 10 schools. It would help cut down on travel costs as both are pretty spread out.

I think CUSA and Sun Belt could benefit from doing something like this also, if they got together and basically drew a line between somewhere between Alabama and Georgia and had the East Coast southern schools in one conference and the southern schools closer to Texas in the other. But with how much the Sun Belt has improved and basically surpassed CUSA I doubt they would have any interest in this now. 

[jdgaucho]

The only thing about that, re: Seattle, is that they have several sports which the Big Sky doesn't sponsor.  Baseball, men's soccer, men's and women's swimmimg & diving. So they'd have to find a new home

[SalinasSpartan]

21 minutes ago, jdgaucho said:

The only thing about that, re: Seattle, is that they have several sports which the Big Sky doesn't sponsor.  Baseball, men's soccer, men's and women's swimmimg & diving. So they'd have to find a new home

Good point. Although in this hypothetical scenario where the conferences cooperated to this degree to swap schools the WAC would most likely allow Seattle to stay as an affiliate in those sports. But you’re right, Seattle isn’t a “natural fit” in the Big Sky for a lot of reasons. 

[Billings]

8 hours ago, ViAggie said:

Yep, going after Weber State too: https://www.ksl.com/article/50063697/southern-utah-seriously-considering-invitation-to-join-the-wac-but-other-schools-also-targeted-for-football-revival

They won't get weber

[MWC Tex]

15 hours ago, ViAggie said:

Yep, going after Weber State too: https://www.ksl.com/article/50063697/southern-utah-seriously-considering-invitation-to-join-the-wac-but-other-schools-also-targeted-for-football-revival

 

6 hours ago, Billings said:

They won't get weber

Yeah, I think the WAC knows Weber is good where they are at.  Really no reason for them to move conferences.  NAU would be in a good position to move to the WAC with GCU, CBU and the UT schools.  A lot of short travel in that core.

[dshawfan]

13 hours ago, USU78 said:

There's a dairy branch in Beaver which isn't far from Cedar City

I always stop to pick up jalapeno cheese curds in Beaver 

[SpartanDude]

On 12/9/2020 at 7:13 AM, jdgaucho said:

Pacific dropped football in 1995.  

And they tore down the stadium (Spanos Stadium I think) a few years ago. 

[USU78]

3 hours ago, SpartanDude said:

And they tore down the stadium (Spanos Stadium I think) a few years ago. 

Still hurts my heart when I see this mentioned.  My dad was a bay area HS FB coach in the '50s and was a real admirer of Stagg and his successes in Stockton.  That is a huge regret.  FSU bears some responsibility for that.  They don't abandon the other Cal States, Pacific probably is still playing FB.

[alum93]

https://www.texasfootball.com/article/2020/12/09/four-texas-colleges-expected-to-join-western-athletic-conference

Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin, Lamar and Abilene Christian are expected to join the Western Athletic Conference to create a new FCS football conference, multiple sources have confirmed to Texas Football.

The news was first reported by Matt Brown of Extra Points. D1Baseball's Kendall Rogers has also confirmed that that the four schools will be joining the WAC for baseball.