USU Aggie here

[ratofallaggies]

I had posted on our board about possible Wac expansion with the below. Just wanted to get your thoughts

Come visit if you'd like: http://www.usufans.com/Forums/

North
NDSU
Montana
Idaho
USU
SJSU
Eastern Washington

South
NTU
NMSU
UTSA
TSU
Lamar
La Tech

 

[ratofallaggies]

as supporters of EW is this something you would want to see? if not what changes would you make?

 

[EWURanger]

I had posted on our board about possible Wac expansion with the below. Just wanted to get your thoughts

Come visit if you'd like: http://www.usufans.com/Forums/

North
NDSU
Montana
Idaho
USU
SJSU
Eastern Washington

South
NTU
NMSU
UTSA
TSU
Lamar
La Tech

I'm thinking more like this will happen:

Montana - Big Sky
NDSU - MVFC
Eastern Washington - Big Sky
Idaho - Big Sky (Won't survize as an indie after the WAC folks, limited options, belong in FCS anyway)
Utah State - Mountain West
SJSU - Better hope they get a Mountain West invite

NMSU, La Tech, NTU - Sun Belt or maybe Conf USA
TSU, UTSA - Wondering what they're thinking about their decision right now
Lamar - Didn't they just bring their football program back this year?

 

[ratofallaggies]

I had posted on our board about possible Wac expansion with the below. Just wanted to get your thoughts

Come visit if you'd like: http://www.usufans.com/Forums/

North
NDSU
Montana
Idaho
USU
SJSU
Eastern Washington

South
NTU
NMSU
UTSA
TSU
Lamar
La Tech

I'm thinking more like this will happen:

Montana - Big Sky
NDSU - MVFC
Eastern Washington - Big Sky
Idaho - Big Sky (Won't survize as an indie after the WAC folks, limited options, belong in FCS anyway)
Utah State - Mountain West
SJSU - Better hope they get a Mountain West invite

NMSU, La Tech, NTU - Sun Belt or maybe Conf USA
TSU, UTSA - Wondering what they're thinking about their decision right now
Lamar - Didn't they just bring their football program back this year?

I wouldn't mind seeing USU in the MWC but i don't think it's going to happen. I saw that your stadium is being renovated. How many does it hold?

 

[EWURanger]

I had posted on our board about possible Wac expansion with the below. Just wanted to get your thoughts

Come visit if you'd like: http://www.usufans.com/Forums/

North
NDSU
Montana
Idaho
USU
SJSU
Eastern Washington

South
NTU
NMSU
UTSA
TSU
Lamar
La Tech

I'm thinking more like this will happen:

Montana - Big Sky
NDSU - MVFC
Eastern Washington - Big Sky
Idaho - Big Sky (Won't survize as an indie after the WAC folks, limited options, belong in FCS anyway)
Utah State - Mountain West
SJSU - Better hope they get a Mountain West invite

NMSU, La Tech, NTU - Sun Belt or maybe Conf USA
TSU, UTSA - Wondering what they're thinking about their decision right now
Lamar - Didn't they just bring their football program back this year?

I wouldn't mind seeing USU in the MWC but i don't think it's going to happen. I saw that your stadium is being renovated. How many does it hold?

I think USU to the MWC is imminent.

But on the facilities, the last major renovation was completed in 2003-2004. The only thing in the works right now officially is a video board upgrade that hopefully will happen in the near future. Our stadium is pretty small. Record crowd was this year just under 12k, and that was with some temporary seating brought in. I think the official capacity is only 8500 or something. Hopefully things will start happening in the near future in regards to the stadium but right now money is tight in the state in general and everything has to be done with donations, so it will take time. Bottom line is it'd take a fair amount of money to get it to where it'd need to be. Attendance is improving over the regular season and will get better after this season's Nation Championship, but in all honesty I don't know how much more excited people would be to see Lamar, North Texas, etc. anymore than they would for PSU, ISU, etc.

In regards to your scenario above - if Montana ever does go FBS, a far more likely scenario would involve MSU going with them. You won't see UM going anywhere without MSU, period. In my opinion, though, you won't see either one going anywhere in the near future unless something major changes in the FCS land scape. Both are happy where they're at.

As far as EWU goes, we won't be making a move to the WAC or anywhere else anytime soon, nor is anyone I know really interested in doing so. We couldn't allocate any extra money to bring us up to 85 scholarships in football, let alone the additional scholarships in woman's sports. I won't even get into the travel costs associated with the conference arrangement above.

Right now, I think, the focus is on building on the success we've gotten the past few years at the FCS level, and making the necessary improvements to make sure we stay an elite program at this level. The National Championship is a fantastic start, but there's tons of room for improvement in a few areas. The future looks bright, but right now we're where we belong.

 

[EdubAlum]

we also sponsor the D1 min sports (11?). Our stadium doesn't even have the capacity to hold the average fans (well, tickets sold) of 16 or 17k that the NCAA requires to move to FBS. I would certainly be interested in EWU moving to FBS in the future, but certainly not now, we have some serious work to do on getting a more loyal (gonzaga style) fan base, and a stadium that is on par with the FCS elite (Montana, App State, Delaware etc)