The news is not good for C-USA. They have now lost Memphis for the 2013-14 academic year. This puts this conference down to 8 schools.
The news is also not good for the WAC. It is almost certain that Louisiana Tech will be leaving. With the probable, inevitable loss of Utah State to the MWC, the WAC will become a non-football league in 2013.
The only thing that can bear off this inevitability is a full, all-sports merger between the two conferences. That merger would create a 16-team (in football) conference that would stretch from Honolulu to Appalachia. I suspect that even in the pending era of super conferences, this prospect will be difficult for some to swallow. Especially at Hawaii, where new head football coach, Norm Chow, was the top assistant at BYU when the 16-team WAC imploded.
The WAC-CUSA merger would be like the old 16-team WAC in so many ways. A mix of private and public schools, a wide geography and the potential loss of some rivalries. Lack of fan interest. It would be very difficult to pull together. I think it would be unwise and too much has been lost to hope it will result in BCS access.
Let me stress, this is an alternative the the MWC/C-USA merger.
Therefore, if the WAC is finished, why not make it a mercy killing and at least have the MWC and C-USA pick from the remaining WAC football schools. At a minimum this is what I envision.
1. The MWC is at 8 schools. Add 4 to go to 12. Add Utah State, San Jose State, New Mexico State and UTEP and divide into divisions.
West Division
Hawaii
San Jose State
Fresno State
Nevada
UNLV
Utah State
East Division
Air Force
Colorado State
New Mexico
New Mexico State
UTEP
Wyoming
2. C-USA would need to add 5 to go to 12, (if UTEP goes to the MWC). Those 5 could be Texas State, UTSA, Louisiana Tech, North Texas and Middle Tennessee.
West Division
Tulsa
Rice
Texas State
UTSA
North Texas
Louisiana Tech
East Division
Marshall
Middle Tennessee
UAB
East Carolina
Southern Mississippi
Tulane
3. Idaho should return to the FCS and the Big Sky Conference. They can keep their basketball programs in the WAC.
4. The WAC adds CS Bakersfield, Utah Valley and Texas Pan American to join Idaho, Boise State, Seattle, Denver and UT Arlington to continue life as a basketball-only conference.
The powers that be probably do not read this blog. But this change makes sense to me.
2 comments:
Uh, the MW and CUSA are already talking merger. Have been since last year. Why would CUSA want to join with the WAC when the MW is much stronger?
You act like Boise State is above such things? I remember when I played against Boise State at La Tech in 1998 and the score was 68 to 24. Boise State is definitely a much better team now but plays no one. If they do they get beat at home against the only team that was worth anything on their schedule(TCU) Tech played TCU better than BSU did this last year. Boise State was just out of the WAC a few years ago and before that was BIG West? Come on?
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