Alliance update from SA

Harry · April 10, 2012

There was a juicy little tidbit posted earlier today on insiderunnersports.com regarding a potential visit from officials from one or both of the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA either in progress or having recently taken place.

No confirmation on my end regarding such a visit. Calls to athletic director Lynn Hickey and several other officials have yet to be returned as of 8 p.m. University spokesman David Gabler said he had “no new information” regarding UTSA’s pursuit of a place in the new venture the two conferences are in the process of forming.

I have, however, spoken to four high-ranking officials from both conferences over the past few days — one school president, three athletic directors — and all said that the primary focus for the new league, jokingly referred to by some as the Intergalatic Planetary Super Football Conference, continues to be sorting out the mountain of legal and business issues involved in bringing the two groups together.

In fact, one of those officials said that any visit would “absolutely not” involve an invitation at this stage, assuming it would likely be more of a fact-finding mission to get eyeballs on physical details like facilities, airport accessibility, etc. Anything else that can be quantified, such as market size, budget, enrollment and attendance, has already been studied to the point that a different official was able to rattle them off without prompting.

Yet another official said there is “nothing imminent” in terms of major decisions. “All of us have the information in our hands,” the official continued. “There’s so many moving parts. I could tell you something and this afternoon it could be different. I can tell you that San Antonio is doing the right things.”

Beyond the minutiae, perhaps the biggest impact on UTSA’s fate with the IPSFC will be its membership model. Though it’s been reported that the league could grow to as many as 24, most of the people I’ve spoken to are saying the number will likely be somewhere between 18-22. It doesn’t take a nuclear physicist to figure out that the larger the league goes, the better UTSA’s chances.

Read more: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/utsa/2012/04/utsa-stock-heating-up/

UNTFan23 · April 10, 2012

How crushing do you think it will be if UTSA doesn't get into one of the alliance conferences?

Denia Park Pedro · April 10, 2012

How crushing do you think it will be if UTSA doesn't get into one of the alliance conferences?

I'm sure KFC can find other things to give away, they'll be fine.

Harry · April 10, 2012

I'm sure KFC can find other things to give away, they'll be fine.

Lol!! Nicely played!

Green Mean · April 10, 2012

I think UTSA is thinking they're already in the SBC for sure at some point. The alliance pursuit is just gravy and the wish but probably not likely at least for the forseable future. If we leave to the alliance then UTSA and Tx State are the obvious targets the way I see it to come to the SBC.

Mean Green 93-98 · April 10, 2012

I think UTSA is thinking they're already in the SBC for sure at some point. The alliance pursuit is just gravy and the wish but probably not likely at least for the forseable future. If we leave to the alliance then UTSA and Tx State are the obvious targets the way I see it to come to the SBC.

I'm not sure about that . . . there seems to be a push among some schools to keep the Belt a Southeast conference, and without North Texas, that would have UTSA and TS-SM sitting out kind of by themselves.

Green Mean · April 10, 2012

I'm not sure about that . . . there seems to be a push among some schools to keep the Belt a Southeast conference, and without North Texas, that would have UTSA and TS-SM sitting out kind of by themselves.

I'm not denying there could be that push but if it's all about regionalism along with big/tv markets then I think it would be impossible to leave out the state of Texas especially since UNT is already in it. By adding UTSA and Tx State you have covered the whole SA, Austin and hill country area and possibly add UTA to that you're adding the DFW market again in place of us. Let's not forget that all 3 of those schools are big state schools of 30k+ with pretty good academic reputation. Not sure TSU and UTSA would be out by themselves...I'm not sure but ULL and ULM wouldn't be that far and ASU isn't that bad I don't think.

By making it a SE regional conference I would think they would still think about big population and tv markets and all you would have is Atlanta and Charlotte if they're considering UNCC. While I'm not discounting that push I just don't see it as logical leaving out the state of Texas all together and not invite UTSA Tx State and even at some point UTA.