http://sloblogs.thetribunenews.com/collegebeat/2010/09/05/polys-big-mystery-announcement/
Poly’s big mystery announcement
It’s been confirmed. Cal Poly will be making a major announcement on Tuesday afternoon. Here’s the info: It’ll be going down at 2:30 p.m. in the president’s suite at Alex G. Spanos Stadium.
It could be anything, so let’s get the crazy ideas out on the table.
* I wrote most of this blog and then realized the phrase, “the big announcement” appeared far too many times. So, I shortened it. From here on TBA = the big announcement.
The fact is, Cal Poly could be ripe for a number of TBAs.
They do not have a university president. (Interim president Robert Glidden will be presenting TBA.) Maybe they’ll have one on Tuesday? But probably not.
The Mustangs have been rumored to be among candidates for the Western Athletic Conference. But I don’t think it would happen so quickly. Didn’t the WAC just announce a few days ago that it had formed a search committee to replace the three teams its losing over the next few years?
TBA might be about that or about the step right before joining the WAC, declaring an intent to move into the Football Bowl Subdivision from the Football Championship Sbdivision. Or it could be about the step right before that — TBAing an intention to expand the stadium to or above NCAA FBS minimums.
I’ve also heard a bunch of wild rumors about Cal Poly athletic director Alison Cone reaching retirement age. I’m pretty sure she’s past the California two-lane highway speed limit. But she’s got to be having too much fun to leave now, right?
No, TBA is definitely about football. And conference alignment is the theme of the year.
I’ve heard a ton of speculation about the Big Sky Conference possibly adding Cal Poly and a few others as football-only additions, allowing the Mustangs to remain in the travel-friendly Big West Conference for most of its other sports. Maybe they could all join the Big Sky.
But here’s the most intriguing idea I heard from one insider today: Could Cal Poly be joining forces with some other FCS teams in the western region to form a new conference, maybe even with an intent to move it to the FBS level?
California teams Cal Poly, UC Davis and Sacramento State along with Montana and Montana State would come together to form the nucleus of a brand new alliance. I admit it’s far-fetched, but here’s the piece of string that might tie it together in theory.
When Fresno State and Nevada were in the WAC, the conference was appealing to Cal Poly because of regional matchups with those teams as well as San Jose State, especially if the Mustangs were packaged with any combination of UC Davis and Sacramento State. The travel was palatable even with Hawaii and Louisiana Tech in the conference.
Now, with just one California school left, the WAC doesn’t have as much to offer Cal Poly without also taking the Davis-Poly-Sac triumvirate, if you want to call it that. UC Davis athletic director Greg Warzecka didn’t quite go that far in a recent interview, but here’s what he said of the trio.
“The relationship we have in football with Sac State end Cal Poly is very, very important,” Warzecka said, “and as far as the all-sport relationship we have with Cal Poly, it’s very important.”
Cone indicated that the UC Davis-Cal Poly relationship was a strong one, too.
“I would love to maintain conference affiliation with UC Davis,” Cal Poly athletic director Alison Cone said. “I love the rivalry that we have. I think it’s good. It’s exciting for our students and alumni. Is that the only consideration? No. But it is an important one? Yes. They’re a school very much like we are, and I think it’s a good, healthy rivalry.”
It also seems clear that Montana isn’t going anywhere without Montana State, which doesn’t have the same appeal as the perennial championship-contending, stadium-packing Grizzlies. Hmm, politics.
Anyway, why don’t the five teams that don’t really want to jump into a shrinking WAC but still kind of want to join the FBS just come together? There’s a possibility that by doing so, they could snag some of the stray teams from the WAC or maybe some underlings from other conferences to theirs.
Could you imagine Idaho, New Mexico State or perhaps even San Diego State and UNLV joining up? It could be fun to see Bobby Hauck and the Rebels matching up with Montana, presuming that Hauck can hang in for the long haul with a program in the doldrums with fans so fickle these days.
It might not be the most likely scenario, but like I said, as far as anyone that doesn’t wear a Cal Poly polo shirt to work is concerned, TBA could be anything.
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