Now the flip side

https://twitter.com/UTRGV_AD/status/945321401032105986

Quote: Chris King‏ @UTRGV_AD
You do realize it is Christmas Day?!?! The Sky is not falling, the WAC is not crumbling and there is no merger talks.....

Quote:spartypants @WACspartypants
@UTRGV_AD any truth to the claim that Idaho AD says wac and big sky discussing merger?

7:52 AM - 25 Dec 2017

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My personal take, Rob Spear has an agenda, or at least a need to spin for his donor base. So maybe he stretched things a bit.

CSU Bakersfield leaving after 2019-20 season leaves no margin for the WAC. If the UMKC rumors of rejoining the Summit are true (and we will probably know a lot more in March and April if this will happen) then the WAC is pretty much done, as GCU will definitely bolt.

To rehash, supposedly GCU turned down the Horizon last year, which is why they turned to IUPUI, but the relationship was not damaged. Further there was a report that one school's President pitched GCU (and NMSU) to the Big Sky last year and there was general agreement that the for profit status was not an issue for the Presidents, although nothing came of it at the time. So GCU definitely has actionable options if they want.

The question for NMSU to they want to continue to ride the WAC like they did the exodus at the start of the decade, or do they jump to a safer ship?

The "merger" and "divisions" talks, if they actually happened (Rob Spear talking here) were/are more likely conversations with individual school ADs (maybe a Prez or two), on a conceptual "what-if" level. GCU and NMSU are definitely who they would contact, and possibly SU. The concept of Divisional play suggests 12 or even 14 schools for Olympics. And that makes me think "merger" is likely to morph into invite for one to three schools. Obviously NMSU or GCU would be the "one" and "two"