(01-23-2018 03:51 PM)Columbia Blue Wrote: Ran across a little tidbit to share, but didn't want to open a new thread just for this. So I'm bringing this thread back for now. Seems the WAC sent some representatives to Tarleton State for a visit last fall. The WAC apparently called the visit unofficial. It seems that the talks did not lead to an invite (for now).
http://texannews.net/potential-division-...nvitation/
The WAC might be a little wary of adding Tarleton State, knowing that the school’s strong preference is to be in the Southland Conference, and that the Southland with 13 current members (11 for football) is positioned to add one last all-sports member to even out its membership.
However I think it would behoove the WAC to consider pursuing a Texas expansion strategy after the Southland makes a move and there are no more rooms available at the Southland inn. Besides Tarleton State there are at least four other D-II Lone Star Conference schools with the facilities to move up to D-I and high enough football attendance to be viable candidates to play at the FCS level. They are:
Texas A&M Kingsville in Kingsville, TX
Enrollment: 8,783
Football facility: Javelina Stadium, seats 15,000
Basketball facility: Steinke Center, seats 4,000
2016 football average home attendance: 8,570
Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX
Enrollment: 6,093
Football facility: Memorial Stadium, seats 14,500
Basketball facility: D.L. Ligon Coliseum, seats 3,600
2016 football average home attendance: 8,363
Texas A&M Commerce in Commerce, Texas
Enrollment: 12,013
Football facility: Memorial Stadium, seats 13,500
Basketball facility: Texas A&M Commerce Fieldhouse, seats 5,000
2016 football average home attendance: 7,982
West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas (just outside Amarillo)
Enrollment: 8,389
Football facility: Kimbrough Stadium, seats 20,000
Basketball facility: First United Bank Center, seats 4,800
2016 football average home attendance: 7,264
After its pending merger with the remnants of the Heartland Conference, the Lone Star Conference will become a 19-member monstrosity. The eight new schools coming in are predominantly small and urban and none of them sponsor football. Given that, I understand why Tarleton State is eagerly seeking greener pastures, and it appears to me that the four schools above are similarly situated.
If Hurd were thinking big I think he could try to sell those four schools — call them the Texas Four — on moving up to D-I and FCS together in conjunction with joining the WAC. That would give the WAC enough of a membership boost to stabilize the conference and, assuming UTRGV also started football, five-sixths of the football membership needed for a viable FCS conference. The sixth football member could be an affiliate (e.g. USD or Cal Poly or UCD), another D-II move-up in the WAC footprint (e.g. Dixie State or CSU Pueblo), or NMSU (not likely given that FBS independence is probably better financially for the Aggies, but a possibility).
WAC basketball wouldn’t suffer as much as one might think, given that two of the Texas Four have top-twenty programs at the D-II level. West Texas A&M (17-2) is currently ranked 11th and Texas A&M Commerce (14-3) is ranked 18th.
Another benefit of bringing in the Texas Four is that it would neatly fill in the geographic gap between NMSU and UTRGV and set up convenient travel partnerships for non-football competition:
Seattle-UVU
Cal Baptist-GCU
NMSU-West Texas A&M
Midwestern State-Texas A&M Commerce
Texas A&M Kingsville-UTRGV
CSUN could head off to the Big West, UMKC to the Summit, Chicago State to D-II or D-III, and everybody’s happy.
