http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/aug/19/mountain-west-expansion-081910/ BYU has looked at dropping out the conference and going Independent in football (thinking they'll get a Notre Dame like BCS deal which is a complete joke) and joining the WAC in all other sports. So the MWC just gave BYU the finger by all but killing off the WAC. Nevada has also joined. Boise of course already joined the league in June. I feel bad for Hawaii as they bring much more to the table then Reno but the travel is awful to Hawaii and expensive. A 12 team MWC with Boise, BYU, TCU and Fresno should be a BCS conference now. I'd imagine if BYU still goes independent then Houston wil be invited. I think Hawaii will go independent with schools like Idaho, San Jose St, and New Mexico St scrambling. My guess is Louisiana Tech will join CUSA.
I believe it's way too late to stop BYU from going independent. Besides they own their own network, don't they? I'm not sure they are doing this just for money.
They do own their own network but without beer ads it'll be near impossible for them to survive on that newtwork. I actually made a mistake as with Utah leaving that leaves the MWC with 11 including BYU. BYU's athletic department will not survive playing independent women's soccer or volleyball. This is all them crying because the better school in the state got an invite to the Pac 10 and their insane political and religous views kept them out.
I think all they are hoping for is a BCS deal like Notre Dame has. Not a network deal. A way into a BCS game while still being independent. And won't the MWC only have 10 football playing teams if BYU leaves?
They're off their rocker if they think they'd ever sniff a BCS deal. Outside of the LDS nobody gives a shit about BYU. My thinking is the MWC is OK with 10 because the additions of Fresno and BYU make up for the loss of BYU in football. If they expanded again my thinking is UTEP, Hawaii, Tulsa and Houston would be in the mix for those 2 spots. They have all but killed the WAC though.
These days that's probably true but when they were a QB factory everybody cared about them. I think that is the whole reason they are doing this, to try and get back to that level.
The major issue they'd run into is who are they going to play? Yes they were able to get Florida St to go there last year and they played Oklahoma at a neutral but they'd need to schedule 12 games and putting Utah St, North Texas and Eastern Michigan isn't going to get you a BCS game or much national attention.
When BYU leaves, I think teams like Houston and maybe UTEP will be be invited to the MWC. The WAC is going to dissolve. There's no way that conference will hold up with six teams. I've heard talk that they're going to invite Montana, but that won't matter much. I hope Hawaii doesn't get invited to the MWC - the travel costs suck and their fans are douche bags. I think the C-USA and WAC are done for.
I think Louisiana Tech will look to bail on the conference and join the Sun Belt or CUSA because I can't see them wanting to travel cross country to play powers like Utah State or Idaho without the possibilty of a Boise BCS bailout. That would leave them with 5 teams and really no future. I still think Hawaii will go independent and they have a much better chance of being succesful then BYU does at it. The only hope for NMSU is if UTEP and Houston joined the MWC and they could try to get in CUSA with LaTech to take their spot. I think Utah St, Idaho and San Jose State are really fucked here.
LA Tech never belonged in the WAC. I think they'd be a really good fit in the C-USA though...especially with Houston likely headed for the MWC. San Jose State was fucked regardless. That team lost almost all of it's talent through dismissals and transfers this off-season. They'd probably be better off joining a I-AA conference like the Big Sky conference.
Probably not a far fetched idea would be BYU leaving and ultimately ending in their demise. The Mountain West then adds Houston and UTEP bringing them to twelve with 2 6 team divisions and a championship game in Vegas. I would imagine the set up would be TCU Houston New Mexico CSU Air Force UTEP Boise Reno Fresno UNLV SDSU Wyoming By doing it that way you also create the possibility of Boise vs TCU in the championship game but you also maintain some traditional rivalries. I then think LaTech and NMSU would look to fill the void in CUSA.... Hawaii, SJSU, Utah St and Idaho better start making house calls.
Utah St. did it to themselves. Open letter from Utah State's AD... http://www.deseretnews.com/article/...Aggies-break-silence-on-conference-moves.html
I'm sure that University of Nevada at Marshall game would be a huge draw on ESPN... that being said Boise vs UCF or TCU vs East Carolina could be some pretty good games. I still think when it's all said and done UCF finds themselves in the Big East. I don't think this happens. The MWC has much higher clout then CUSA, they'd be downgrading if they added all those other schools. There is no reason for them to do this as they are already close to a BCS bid without those other schools.
Legitimate name for Conference-USA. Of course this would never happen, but certainly interesting with a 1 game play-off for a BCS bid.
And while I agree, and hope this doesn't happen, Joe Schad has confirmed MWC/CUSA BcS play in game as a possibility. Fuck that.
Yeah that's garbage, although it would certainly make playing in a BCS game a little more easy as your not forced to run the table the idea of a team like Tulsa (who is the smallest D1 school) playing in the Orange Bowl sounds terrible. From what I've seen and read on various sites over the last few hours Hawaii's AD was on a local Honolulu station and has all but said they are going independent. His quote was something along the lines are we have plenty of scheduling options over the next few years that we would be ok. I've also heard that Louisiana Tech has or will receive an invite to join the Sun Belt Conference. It's a perfect fit for them. I'm sure they would have preferred CUSA but that wasn't happening. Rumors are New Mexico State could possibly be invited as well. That seems far fetched but who knows at this point. A lot can change but essentially the WAC is dead and any possible opportunities to revive it are fading away.
Isn't there an NCAA exception that allows teams who schedule a game at Hawaii to play 13 regular season games? Many big programs not concerned with travel costs would probably jump at the chance to get a series with hawaii... 13th Game on schedule and they'd get to tell recruits that they'd get a trip to Hawaii every other year.
