wardly

add unt and ark. st. to wac now, and texas state and utsa later. this gives you wac/east consisting of 6 schools with n.mexico st & la. tech.

if a&m and west virginia go to sec,utah to pac/southwest, baylor and iowa st.to cusa, kansas, k. state, and missouri to mt. west, n.texas has no place to go, unless they and ark. st.join 8 member wac to create 10 school conference, adding texas state and utsa at a latter date. question? are we better off in the belt than in west division of wac with new mexico st. la. tech, ark. st., texas state, and utsa, under the premise that s.m.u. will block our entry into any conference that they are a member? your thoughts?

no one wants baylor or iowa state, and no one trusts missouri. assuming a&m comes to their senses and moves to pac/southwest, i would look for 10 member mt. west to add kansas and kansas state. i am not knowledgeable on politics in kansas, but assume they may be locked at the hip. baylor would then move to cusa, with missouri and iowa state hosed. question is, would 6 member cusa west plus baylor decide to create a 10 member conference, adding north texas, la.tech, and ark. state? if memory serves, baylor athletic budget is in $30 million range, smu in high $20 million range,while rest of schools vary from mid teens to low twenties. this should put baylor in a conference that they could dominate, with 5 private and 4 low budget state schools. 10 member conferences work well, with round robin and 3 ocs games. i see a great expense reduction in a regional "southwest conference", but little t.v. money. probably makes too much sense to work.

what if this is it? big 10 stops with addition of big red, pac 10 adds utah to get to 12, mt. west replaces utah with boise, big 12 goes forward with 10 schools for now, and big east goes back to sleep. a lot of foreplay with a premature climax. a 10 school big 12 conference makes a lot of sense. round robin conference play with 3 non- conference games. could happen.

i believe this is with state money, not private finds/student fees. also, i love the duke city.

lindy's has us 8th in belt, as does sporting news. athlon ranks us 7th, with a a projected 2&10 record. a number of you are predicting us at 6&6 or 7&5. what do you know that people who do this for a living don't? just asking.

the big east has no other option other to split. this would give the 8 football schools a chance to add ucf or e.c.u for a 9th full member. however, this still won't protect them from big 10 expansion if n.d. remains a football independent. the only move that saves big east football members from big 10 is to force n.d. out. the irish would have nowhere to put their basketball and other sports, and would reluctantly join big 10, which would end efforts to raid big east football members. while big east may not want to throw n.d. under the bus, decisions are easier when you have no options. the big 10 is thinking expansion, while big east is fighting to survive. just an opinion.

the big east has one hole card they need to play in order to save their football programs. tell n. dame to either become a football member, or they will be kicked out of the big east in all other sports. this would probably drive n. dame to the big 10, and expansion would stop there,leaving the big east as we know it.

any idea what % of our student body commutes? utep is a commuter school with an athletic program and fan support that i would kill for, and probably more closely resembles utsa than usf.

using south fla. bulls as an example, we might be surprised what they might be able to accomplish. they are the only college team in a major market. if usa can, they can as well.

from what i read in el paso times, utep is happy in cusa despite time zone issues. ark. state is a nice fit. should boise go to mt. west, which should/could happen in july, then wac drops to 8 schools. nt,ull,ark. state, and utep[big maybe]or utsa[big certainty] could create a tracel friendly Eastern wac division.

actually the " existing w.a.c. school" would be la.tech. my bad.

i am at the point that if b.s.u. moves to mt.west, which would leave w.a.c. with just 8 schools, we should package ourselves, ark. st, u.la.la., and u.t.e.p. to create a w.a.c. eastern division, which would include n. mexico st. and another existing w.a.c. school. i just can't believe that s.m.u. will allow us in c.u.s.a., any more than t.c.u. will let them into mt. west. just an opinion. i would rather go west than east.

i saw article today announcing new pac 10 tv contract that was so rich that they might not need to expand their market and may not expand to 12 school. google " pac 10 expansion "for article.

byu is private school with low academic rating compared to existing pac 10 members, while utah is a good fit. in addition, i think no sports on sunday is a deal breaker. i would be more surprised if they went together. again, you only need one of them to capture t.v. market, not both.

i would think that after 1] the big 10 raids big 12/big east,2] pac 10 raids big 12/mt.west, 3] big 12 raids mt. west/cusa, and 4] big east raids cusa, the best case scenario for remaining mid/majors is a]eastern members of cusa join sunbelt, b] western members of sunbelt join cusa, and c] wac and mt. west merge. should be an interesting summer.

thanks for info. i think i would rather be la. tech's travel partner in w.a.c. than stay in belt. my thinking is that t.c.u. has a better shot at big 12 than we do at c.u.s.a. as long as s.m.u. is a member.

i don't think t.c.u. will be invited to big 12 unless conference just can't find anyone else. t.c.u. brings no new market to the conference, as big 12 already controls both dfw and houston media. i would look to new mexico or memphis first, or utah if pac 10 doesn't snatch them up.

i have never quite understood "travel partners", and the importance thereof. could someone knowledgeable please explain to one who admits ignorance on the subject?

if memory serves texas tried unsuccessfully to close some smaller colleges 25/30 years ago. the only thing that i remember coming out of it was a movement by schools such as west texas state to affilliate with larger systems such as texas a&m, for example. while it might be the financially prudent move to make, politically its a landmine.

i don't know of any replacements for missouri and nebraska that puts big 12 tv contract in stronger position than it is now. t.c.u. and houston would bring nothing new to the table. plus if pac 10 adds colorado, big 12 is in a world of hurt. arkansas would loose aproximately $10 millon annually by returning to swc/big 12, and no one wants byu. it would seem the only choices are to become the big 9, or add someone like new mexico to replace nebraska, colorado state to replace colorado, and perhaps memphis to replace missouri. if pac 10 takes utah, then mountain west would be done as a b.c.s. want-a-be. it appears that big 12,mountain west, and big east are all in the same boat, waiting on big 10 and pac 10 to make a move, which could happen this june/july. the non bcs conferences such as w.a.c.,c.u.s.a., and belt will swap some schools, but should come out o.k. i think the m.a.c. will stand pat. just an opinion.

if this 22 year old man had a 16 year old girlfriend, he might be playing next at penn state[sorry, i meant state pen]