What's Next for the WAC?

[Harry]

The Western Athletic Conference dipped into Texas to build back membership for football in 2012. Texas State and Texas-San Antonio join San Jose State, Louisiana Tech, Idaho, New Mexico State, and Utah State. With seven teams in the fold, the WAC still needs to add to it's ranks.

For the last few years, schools like Montana, North Texas, and Cal-Davis have been mentioned as possible expansion targets for the WAC. Most have resisted, in most part due to the instability of the league.

Two schools make a lot of sense, Portland State and Sacramento State. They are from large media markets, just like recent WAC additions Denver, Seattle, Texas San-Antonio, and Texas-Arlington. They would also help get the league back to it's west coast roots. Sacramento State and Portland State would join the league's longest tenured member, San Jose State, to form a western division along with Seattle, Idaho, and Utah State. The Spartans should have a division buit around them. As much as the WAC needed Texas, they also need the west coast.

Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, and Denver would join the three Texas schools to form an "eastern" division. Having two divisions and twelve schools overall make a lot of sense for the spread out league. The WAC must get back to nine football schools to avoid disaster. It's really a tough spot to be in for WAC Commissioner Karl Benson. No one wants to join the league because of the unknown, but it's the unknown that could eventually take football away from the WAC.

The Mountain West and Conference USA have been talking merger. What if Utah State or Louisiana Tech leave? Can the WAC withstand yet another departure or will teams like NMSU or UTSA look for more stability in the Sun Belt?

The big question with the merger is travel. Can Fresno, Nevada, and UNLV really travel in all sports to East Carolina and Marshall? Is that really smart? West Virginia can join the Big 12 because there is enough money involved to pay travel costs. Boise State and San Diego State joined the Big East, but only in football.

Conference USA has always been about large markets. Would the league, down to eight members, be better off adding Louisiana Tech and putting them in a new eastern division with Tulane, Marshall, USM, UAB, and ECU? This would help with travel and create some interesting rivalries. Who would join Rice, Tulsa, and UTEP in the west? The answer is found in the WAC and it brings back the point of large markets.

Read more: http://louisianatech.scout.com/2/1157484.html

[UNTflyer]

Seems to me we are getting more mentions about joining CUSA, even with the speculative merger.

[Rudy]

Seems to me we are getting more mentions about joining CUSA, even with the speculative merger.

If Benson gets the SBC job, we'd better hope we get into CUSA.