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FBS Conference Realignment

Wyokie said:
Put it this way guys....

The Big 12 Conference will officially be dead as of July 1, 2012!

So in a way, those stupid 2012 end of the world predictions are true. :roll:
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In a way I'm looking forward to the Big 12 breaking up if only to put an end to the University of Texas' ego trip. They already consider themselves the greatest team of all time and the Big 12 their doormat. If they were to join with the Pac-10 the teams there might just be able to teach them some humility. The only odd team out seems to be Baylor, nobody seems to want them because in football they are the perrienial doormat of the league and likely as not will never get much better.
 
As expected, Boise State is gone from the WAC.

Interesting blurb:

"The WAC is keeping its options open, too, scouring for schools. Benson said there are five or six candidates from the Football Championship Series the conference is keeping an eye on."

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5276064&campaign=rss&source=twitter&ex_cid=Twitter_espn_5276064
 
martymoose said:
As expected, Boise State is gone from the WAC.

Interesting blurb:

"The WAC is keeping its options open, too, scouring for schools. Benson said there are five or six candidates from the Football Championship Series the conference is keeping an eye on."

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5276064&campaign=rss&source=twitter&ex_cid=Twitter_espn_5276064
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You beat me to it. I saw the same line in the same article. The fact that all of this shuffling seems predicated on television markets can only help PSU, as the WAC has no real presence in the NW (and no, I don't count Moscow, Idaho as a presence).
 
The 5 or 6 FCS (or I-AA) programs are probably Portland State, Sac State, Montana, Montana State, UC-Davis and Cal Poly. NAU and Weber could also be considered.

UC-Davis, Sac State and Cal Poly would be wise to join their California brethren in the Big West and play FB as independents or drop FB altogether. For the time being, Montana leads in FB prowess, but none of the remaining has the media market and transportation infrastructure to match Portland State.

The WAC is ready for us. PSU best get ready. FB is the key, the other sports are just about ready. Isaac Ropp and his sidekick were discussing this in light of the excitement of the Pac-10, Big Ten and MWC expansion news.
 
We've talked about this before. PSU would have to add a minimum of two sports to join the WAC. And football scholarships. And more admin money. Money. Maybe the promise of WAC membership might bring it in, but it's very risky. Joining WAC would be very cool, but......
 
pdxfan said:
We've talked about this before. PSU would have to add a minimum of two sports to join the WAC. And football scholarships. And more admin money. Money. Maybe the promise of WAC membership might bring it in, but it's very risky. Joining WAC would be very cool, but......
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What sports would need to be added and are they of the sort that might make local kids give PSU a serious look?
 
Men's soccer, maybe. Men's golf. I'd like to see wrestling come back, but the WAC doesn't have that. Baseball - but that's very expensive, and recruitment would be difficult against UO, OSU, and Portland. Cross country - we could have a great rivalry with UP. That would be true for men's soccer, too. It would be hard for us to get up to Division I standards anytime soon if we were to start any of these. UO baseball did it in two years - a snap with all the money flowing there.
 
pdxfan said:
Men's soccer, maybe. Men's golf. I'd like to see wrestling come back, but the WAC doesn't have that. Baseball - but that's very expensive, and recruitment would be difficult against UO, OSU, and Portland. Cross country - we could have a great rivalry with UP. That would be true for men's soccer, too. It would be hard for us to get up to Division I standards anytime soon if we were to start any of these. UO baseball did it in two years - a snap with all the money flowing there.
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If they join the WAC they should add Men's soccer they could have a good rivalry with good with UP and I think they should add ether Baseball or Golf so they can again have that rivalry with UP I think it would be good for both schools and the City

University of Portland Sports
Men's
Baseball
Basketball
Cross Country
Golf
Soccer
Tennis
Track and Field

Women's
Basketball
Cross Country
Golf
Soccer
Tennis
Track and Field
Volleyball

Portland State Sports
Men's
Football
Basketball
Cross Country
Tennis
Track and Field

Women's
Cross Country
Track and Field
Volleyball
Soccer
Basketball
Golf
Softball
Tennis
 
BroadwayVik said:
The 5 or 6 FCS (or I-AA) programs are probably Portland State, Sac State, Montana, Montana State, UC-Davis and Cal Poly. NAU and Weber could also be considered.

UC-Davis, Sac State and Cal Poly would be wise to join their California brethren in the Big West and play FB as independents or drop FB altogether. For the time being, Montana leads in FB prowess, but none of the remaining has the media market and transportation infrastructure to match Portland State.

The WAC is ready for us. PSU best get ready. FB is the key, the other sports are just about ready. Isaac Ropp and his sidekick were discussing this in light of the excitement of the Pac-10, Big Ten and MWC expansion news.
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Get ready is right, no other FCS school can match what PSU can bring to the WAC. From the best transportation infrastructure, location (NW), The newly renovated PGE park with permanent broadcasting features, one of the highest FCS enrollments...list goes on. Nigel Burton knows the WAC teams he's faced and how to prepare against them, his defense crushed Ryan Mathews and Fresno State last year. As far as adding sports to meet WAC requirements it would be nice to see Baseball added to the program. Financially, the WAC has been successful with television contracts with the mother ship over the years.
 
I find it interesting that Chisholm - or anyone else official for that matter - hasn't said a word about reallignment. Are they considering it? Or isn't it on their radar? I suspect the latter.
 
pdxfan said:
I find it interesting that Chisholm - or anyone else official for that matter - hasn't said a word about reallignment. Are they considering it? Or isn't it on their radar? I suspect the latter.
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Or they have been contacted, been told they they are being considered, but the WAC wants to keep it quiet until a decision has been made. Chisolm might be afraid to say anything because he knows anything he might says, either way, could add fuel the fires of rumor and speculation.
 
Looks like the Big 12-2 is going to remain a viable conference. Frankly I'm not surprised that they came to a last minute agreement. Texas is to used to calling the shots around the Big 12 (which is why Nebraska left) to give up all that influence to the California schools. I can't help but think that Texas had this all planned out to scare the crap out of the rest of the conference that was not wanted by the Pac 10 that they would be forced to join mid major conferences and thus goad them into agreeing to anything to keep the conference alive. As is both Texas and Oklahoma get the lions share of all future TV money and the rest of the schools get the rest.
 
The chasing after TV money that goes with bowl teams doesn't appeal to me. Despite that money, bowl teams 80% of them are under water in overall budgets.
 
The University of Montana, Sacramento State, Portland State, and UC Davis are all teams that Benson is mulling over as to whether they'll be sent invitations to join the Western Athletic Conference.
According to The Nielsen Company, Portland State and Sacramento State hold the number 20 and 22 markets respectively while Montana ranks as the 166th television market. Montana's budget of $13 million in 2009 is well below the WAC average of $20 million in expenses per school.-from bleacher report see link

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/406920-conference-realignment-the-wac-looking-at-teams-to-replace-boise-state
 
I assume that Kaufman heard this from the WAC commissioner? Or were his sources his Fresno contacts? As far as I can tell, the commissioner still has to say "PSU" or any of the other schools being considered (if they are). Still, it's nice to be mentioned, even if Kaufman obviously sees the choosing of a Big Sky team to be the torpedo that sinks the WAC. Hell, as far as he's concerned the WAC is already sunk, with the departure of Boise State.

I'll say it again: I don't think PSU has the money to join the WAC, and in any case isn't quite ready to move up in terms of athletic depth. Women's sports could, and maybe men's basketball, though the NCAA suspension hangs heavily around our necks. But it's all about football, and we still don't know how well Burton's teams will play. Right now if we went into the WAC we'd be facing a couple seasons of 0-11. Well, I suppose it could be 2-9. Even so.....is it worth the financial pain?
 
Good write up on the Big Oh today about PSU and the WAC.

"Torre Chisholm, the Vikings’ director of athletics, said he hasn’t thought about the possibility of making the jump."

Come on. I'm sure the thought of moving up has at least entered his mind a couple of times...

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/argus/nick_christensen/index.ssf/2010/06/vikings_still_a_player_in_coll.html
 
I have been thinking that maybe a move to the WAC might be a step on the right direction, granted it will be expensive, but it will at least put us on a firmer footing against OU and OSU. we will also be getting a share of the ESPN TV contract plus a share of any bowl procedes should any conference teams make a bowl game. But the move will also give PSU more exposure outside of the Northwest/California markets. It will also expand our recruiting grounds into the larger venues of Nevada, California, Hawaii, Lousiana, Utah and New Mexico. It will also allow PSU schedule more hi profile teams (MWC, Pac -10, Big 12 or even Notre Dame) in our back yard as opposed to having to travel to theirs. It will also be a economic shot in the arm for the city because as these teams, their fans and possibly their families visit Portland they will spend lots of money and may realize that Portland/Oregon is one of the best vacation destinations in the country and will be back.
Now we will probably have some lean years as far as our record will go but our quality of recruits will improve and it will be a long process, but I can remember it wasn't that long ago when both the Ducks and Beavers were the PAC-10 conference's perrenial laughingstocks and doormats, but through agressive recruiting and increasing aumni support with each small success they became the programs thay are today.
 
The "Full House" conferences that have very likely finished expanding are now the

SEC, ACC, Pac-12 (2012), Big-12 (2012)

The rest are still in flux, even those that currently have 12 members. The next one to close its doors will, of course, be the Big XII. They need to select two to replace Colorado and Nebraska. Which are they likely to invite to fill in the gap?

My guess is TCU from the Mountain West and i believe they, like the Pac-10, will snub BYU in favor of another Texas school---June Jones' SMU.

Here is my rationale: TCU is a clear choice and they are located in Fort Worth. So bringing in a travel partner for them from Dallas would put things in good order. They see SMU on the rise and that university will still have two seasons to make sufficient progress to make themselves competitive. Plus, as June Jones found out, SMU has a truckload of money. They can put the pieces in order in time for the 2012 season.

What's more, they can reorganize the conference with the Oklahoma and Texas schools in separate divisions. That way, a Texas school will always vie for the conference title. I see the new Big XII as follows:

Big XII North Division

Missouri - Iowa State
Kansas - Kansas State
Oklahoma - Oklahoma State

Big XII South Division

Texas - Texas A&M
TCU - SMU
Texas Tech - Baylor
 
Is it odd that Portland State is asking this question on their facebook page?

Viking Fans, do you think Portland State should move to the WAC or not? Let us know your thoughts! Go Viks!
 
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