Gary Anderson has worked very hard in Logan and should be commended for the job he is doing as Utah State's head football coach. He has put together and exciting team with a solid defense and with Robert Turpin in the backfield, I expect to see the Aggies go bowling in 2011 and contend for the WAC Championship in 2012. It would be a shame to see the WAC fold as a football conference and the Aggies relegated to the Football Championship Subdivision.
In a recent speech, Big Sky Commissioner, Doug Fullerton said he was only 60% joking when he said that the door was open for Utah State and Idaho for the Big Sky Conference. Then Fullerton when to list the benefits of the FCS. First, is not having to compete with schools with a larger athletic budget. Second, it the chance that everyone has to play for a championship. But he did not touch on what schools lose when their programs are downgraded. What is in store for the Utah State should they be forced to join the Big Sky Conference?
1. A loss of rivalries. Much has been made about Utah not playing Utah State in basketball. If Utah State is downgraded, they will not be playing Utah in football either. They will also not be playing the team Aggie fans love to hate--BYU. The Big Sky conference, who has not broken into divisions, assigns "rivals" that football teams play every season and will rotate who the teams plays otherwise. If Utah State and Idaho join the Big Sky, Utah State will likely be assigned Idaho and Weber State as "rivals" and play everyone else on a rotating basis. I doubt that Utah State fans will get as excited about playing Weber State every season as they do about playing BYU every season.
2. Loss of revenue. Obviously, Utah State will see fewer fans at Romney Stadium if they were downgraded. USU's best attended games are against the Cougars and the Utes. There will be fewer fans come out to watch them play Weber State and Idaho State. Plus, when Utah State does play the money game at the like of Oklahoma, their take home will be less than half of what it is now. Yes, expenses will drop, but they may not drop as much as revenue will.
3. A loss of scholarships. Yes, the expenses are lower at the lower subdivision, but there is a reason for that. The lower subdivision sponsors fewer sports and therefore has fewer athletic scholarships. Utah State will likely have to drop a women's sports program, like swimming, if they were to downgrade their football program because of the loss of revenue from football. If Utah State is downgraded, about 50 athletes will be told that they will need to find funding for their education through other means. Only half of those athletes will be football players. Only half of those athletes will be men. Title IX has it's downside, too.
4. Loss of basketball prestige. Even with the addition of Texas Arlington and their ultra-low RPI, the WAC is still slightly improved in Basketball, while the Mountain West Conference drops a little. The reason is that Fresno State and Hawaii, while good football programs, are awful at basketball. Boise State is inconsistent and Nevada is not what they used to be. On a good year, the WAC still could get two teams into the NCAA 68, while the Mountain West drops from a 3-bid conference to a 2-bid conference. In the mean time, it will take a Gonzaga-like rise from someone in the Big Sky to lift them to a two-bid conference. Utah State would not make the Big Sky Conference a two-bid conference, because the rest of the conference is weak. They will always be a one-bid conference. If Utah State were in the Big Sky as long a Stew Morrill is coaching the Aggies, that team would be Utah State.
Mountain West--2011 average RPI--95 (7th Best Conference)
WAC--2011 average RPI--156 (14th Best Conference)
Big Sky--2011 average RPI--223 (23rd Best Conference)
Mountain West--Projected RPI based on 2012/13 alignment--112 (-17) (Drops from 7th to 8th best)
WAC--Projected RPI based on 2012/13 alignment--155 (+1) (14th Best Conference)Big Sky--Projected RPI based on 2012/13 alignment--233 (-10) (23rd Best)
5. Academic Prestige. If you do not count UC Davis and Cal Poly, who are football only Big Sky members and part of the Big West Conference, the WAC is a better academic conference than the Big Sky. Academically, Idaho and Utah State are the class of the WAC. I know that people are going to argue that the Big Sky is a better academic conference than the WAC, but again, I argue, only because of Cal Poly and UC Davis.
One advantage that the Big Sky had over the WAC is almost gone. Travel...the WAC no longer has Hawaii and the Big Sky has added North Dakota. The footprints of the two conferences are similar, but the WAC is still slightly larger.
Doug Fullerton's speech in Ogden the other day is, to me, like selling someone a house in Glendale when one can afford a house in Sugarhouse and saying, "look on the bright side, at least you are don't have to keep up with the Jones' in Federal Heights." Even in a weakened WAC, there will be no asterix beside a Utah State Championship because Boise State is not there. A conference championship and a bowl game are positives that no one can take away no matter what conference they are in.
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