The WAC did not meet their original deadline to be fully-expanded by April 1st of this year. Of course they did add Texas State, Texas San Antonio and Denver in November. But then they recently lost Hawaii. The reason for this is that the WAC Athletic Directors do not agree, yet, on the model for their conference.
In football, Division the FBS schedule is 12 games. If you play a road game in Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico you can schedule a 13th game. But there is only one football program this exception applies to and most WAC schools are well aware of this.
There is no hard and fast rule on the number of basketball games a team should schedule in a season. Generally, however, it is an unwritten rule that 20 wins is the standard for post-season play. Most teams schedule 29 games and the conference tournament will give them at least 30 games.
The BYU agreement, according to San Jose State's athletic director, will likely continue as long as both the WAC and BYU need it. Utah State and BYU will likely play every season. San Jose State and Idaho both are in communities where there is a significant LDS population and will benefit from scheduling the Cougars regularly. Louisiana Tech will likely benefit from this arrangement the least. What level this continues at is anyone's guess at this time.
Optimal size for football...
7 teams.
Assuming no more expansion, raids from other conferences or relegation, the WAC will be at 7 teams for football. This will mean that there will be six conference games scheduled each season, 3 at home and 3 on the road. This means that schools will need to schedule six non-conference games. Even with the BYU agreement, this will be difficult. This means non-conference games in October and even November. This is far from optimal. The main advantage would be exposure for the conference as teams would not have to chose between a money game against a big school and an easy win against an FCS school. WAC teams would be able to schedule both.
8 teams.
This means 7 conference games and this is considered a good size when the standard college football season was 11 games. This means an unbalanced conference schedule, some years you have 4 home conference games and other years you have 4 road conference games. It also means 5 non conference games. Usually this would also have the same advantage as a 7 team conference, teams would be able to schedule a money game...a road game against a big BCS school and a home game against an FCS school. If this WAC decides on this model, look for Lamar to be added.
9 teams.
This means 8 conference games and 4 non conference games. The conference schedule would be balanced between road and home games. This allows for a money game and a game against an FCS team. This means that the WAC would add two for football. If the WAC decides on this model, then I expect that Montana and Montana State will be the invitees.
10 teams.
This means 9 conference games and 3 non-conference games. This worked well for the PAC-10, but a conference like the WAC may not work out so nice. The reason is the WAC are the ones who are the opponents in the money games. With a 10-team conference, one team may end up with only 5 home games. But if the WAC chooses this model, then look for Lamar, Montana and Montana State to be invited.
11 teams.
This works well if the conference is willing to play an unbalanced schedule. The conference could play 9 conference games and 3 non-conference games. There would be the same challenges as a 10 team conference, except the unbalanced schedule puts another challenge into it. 11 works out nice for basketball, so if the conference leaders choose this size expect one of the teams to be a football-only team. Lamar, Montana, Montana State would be invited as full-time members and Cal-Poly as a football only member.
12 teams.
Split into divisions. As we have blogged before, the main benefit the WAC can gain by going to 12 teams is to reduce travel costs. To make this work, the expansion committee will need to consider regional grouping. In New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana there are now four teams, there will need to be two more in this area to make a 12 team WAC work. Two divisions means 5 games against other teams in the same division and four games against teams from the other division for 9 conference games. Therefore, if the WAC chooses this model, expect the full-time members to be Lamar, Sam Houston State, Montana, Montana State and Cal-Poly as a football-only member.
Others the WAC will consider...or plan B...
Western/Northern Half...Portland State, Sacramento State, Northern Arizona, Weber State and Eastern Washington as full-time members. UC Davis and Sacramento State at football-only members.
Eastern/Southern Alternatives...
Stephen F. Austin and Northeastern State.
No comments:
Post a Comment