College football conference swamping is quickly becoming a sport all its own.
To quickly recap the off-season, the Pac-10 (home to most of the largest and academically prestigious schools in the West) wanted to form a 16-team super conference and failed.
Still desiring NCAA football's golden goose (a conference title game) they raided the Big-12 (Colorado) and the Mountain West, plucking up by far the most successful mid-major program in the BCS era, Utah. Reaching its magic number of 12, the Pac-10 created a trickle down effect.
The MWC needing a new "power" football member turned to Boise State, who gladly ran from the WAC.
I thought the dust had settled until this past week.
That's when BYU started another round of the blood-sport known as conference alignment, with the rumors the school was going independent in football and joining the WAC in all other sports.
In the midst of trying to obtain an automatic BCS bid for its champion the Mountain West, down two possible members, made a preemptive strike adding Frenso State and Nevada from the WAC.
Also as you could expect, WAC commissioner Karl Benson had some harsh words for the latest schools to bolt.
However, it's not likely those additions could make up for the loss of Utah and BYU when it comes the BCS. It does my heart good to see Boise State fans, who were so excited to join the MWC, now realizing they're joining the WAC-plus.
So the question now is what becomes of the WAC?
In 2012, the conference could be facing extinction, down to only six members: Hawai'i, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State and Utah State. It needs two more members.
The maligned WAC will find away to survive.
One possible route is luring a couple old members back into the pack, and three schools jump out: San Diego State, Wyoming and UTEP. All have struggled in football the past several years and could make its alumni very happy by playing a lower conference competition and winning. After all Boise has proven its not all about who you beat, but how often you win.
The other more likely route is adding I-AA (or FCS) schools. The WAC has nurtured several programs to Division I status before. Currently, Texas State is the only I-AA school that would be ready to make a jump in 2011. Others who could decide to move up: Cal Poly, Texas-San Antonio, Sacramento State and UC-Davis.
The good news for the WAC, as Idaho athletic director Rob Spear wrote, pending NCAA legislation may require a school moving from I-AA (FCS) to I-A (FBS) to have conference affiliation.
Who knows what the future holds, and if the major conferences will again try to form super-conferences.
The absolute best case for the WAC in 2012 (and plausibly realistic) would look something like this: Hawai'i, Idaho, New Mexico St., Sacramento St., San Diego St., San Jose St., Utah St., UTEP (with BYU in all other sports). But I know they'll settle for staying alive.
1 comment:
What us fans of the WAC can be happy about is that parody has never been so prevalent in college football. Whether they add a couple of I-AA (FCS teams, if you must) teams or not, the once cavernous gap between the supposed "elite" teams and the WAC has never been smaller. I like the conference even if they lose Nevada and Fresno. Who needs them? I think it's their mistake.
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