(08-19-2010 11:05 AM)OwlFamily Wrote: Any chance on a copy and paste?
That site is blocked at work and Id love to read it.
Written by: jaywalker
Thursday, August 19, 2010 9:03 AM
Yesterday, the Western Atlhetic Conference was put on a respirator. Fresno State and Nevada, the most prestigious programs in the WAC (after the departure of Boise State), announced that they were going to join the Broncos as new members of the Mountain West Conference.
That came on the heels of reports that Brigham Young University was ready to become a football independent and move their other sports to the WAC. That move looked like a really good one for WAC Commissioner Karl Benson.
That is, until Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson decided to effectively put the WAC out of business.
With the departure of Fresno and Nevada, the WAC now consists of six schools, all in different states, in four different time zones. The closest geographical rivalry is Idaho and Utah State. NCAA rules state that in order to be a viable FBS conference, a league must have eight full time football playing members.
And, the WAC's options are not very attractive.
No FBS school in its right mind is going to join that league. That leaves FCS schools that want to move up. The WAC needs two at a minimum. Texas State wants to move up. UTSA wants to be FBS, but right now they aren't even FCS. Cal State Sacramento and UC Davis are possibilities but the economic plight of California would make the move very difficult. And Montana hasn't sounded like a school that has a desire to move up.
If Commissioner Benson can get back to eight, he still has a league. Barely. And there would be no question that it would be the worst FBS league......by a wide margin.
So now, it's time for Sun Belt Commissioner Wright Waters to get to work.
Back when the rumors of SuperConferences were flying about, the Commish said that conferences are either in survival mode or enhancement mode. He believed the SBC was in the latter category.
Time to enhance, Commish.
Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State are ripe for the picking right now. Both are former members of the league. Fans are familiar with them and vice versa. They are the two most stable programs remaining in the WAC (except for Hawai'i and nobody's gonna call them.) They are the closest schools in geography.
Do they enhance the conference?
Neither Tech nor NMSU have been football powers. Sure, Tech made the Independence Bowl in 2008 but they haven't been perennial contenders in the WAC. But NMSU and Tech both won more than 20 games in men's basketball, their women's programs are in the top three of the WAC, and they both play baseball and softball.
Someday, the Sun Belt Conference will be a 12 team football league. I personally have never been favor of twelve, given the choice of adding current FCS schools looking to move to the FBS and find a home. But this is different. Here are two schools that actually bring something to the table. They make the Sun Belt a better league and they have solid FBS footing and stability.
But there are issues that must be resolved before anything can happen.
After the departure of Boise, it was reported that the WAC schools instituted a five million dollar penalty for any school that left the league within the next five years. That's a lot of money. But it didn't stop Nevada and Fresno from making the move. NMSU and Louisiana Tech could argue that after the defection of the above two schools that the WAC was no longer a viable league and the penalty should be waived. And, they might win.
Then there's the albatross hanging around Louisiana Tech's neck. It was a very contentious departure when the Ruston school left the Belt to become a part of the WAC. Tech's refusal to sign on for SBC football almost scuttled the league before it got started. Their departure and the scrambling that followed caused a chasm in the relationship between Tech President Dr. Dan Reneau and Waters. Even as recently as a few years ago when Tech commissioned it's 2020 Vision research, Reneau indicated that if their consultant deduced that Tech would be best served as a member of the Sun Belt, he would fire the consultant.
Tech's athletics department hasn't helped the situation either. Former Athletics Director/Head Football Coach Derek Dooley publicly said he was not going to schedule Louisiana-Monroe in football because Tech had "separated" themseves from the Warhawks, a comment which prompted ULM Athletics Director Bobby Staub to drop Tech from ULM's schedule in all sports. Dooley made the same comment privately to Louisiana officials, prompting Cajuns Athletic Director David Walker to follow suit. Dooley is gone to Tennessee and his successor Bruce Van de Velde (who was unemployed when Tech hired him to be Associate AD) has bumbled and stumbled his way through the first few months of his "reign of error" and done nothing to rectify the relationships.
And it was, in fact, Louisiana Tech who had a great hand in neither Louisiana nor Arkansas State getting an Independence Bowl bid opposite the Bulldogs in 2008, which only further heightened the animosity between the LIncoln Parish school and everyone associated with the SBC.
But now is the time to put egos aside. Now is the time to look at what is best for the Sun Belt Conference now and in the future. Now is the time for Louisiana Tech administration, athletic officials and fans to admit that while they tried to make the WAC a stepping stone to something better, it blew up in their faces. Now is the time for both the league and Tech to understand that it's in the interest of both parties' futures to just let it go.
The financial penalties and the bruised egos might get in the way of what would be a win (SBC), win (NMSU) and win (La. Tech.) situation.
But I believe there's a way to get this done.
I believe the time is right.
I believe that it's time to show that the Sun Belt is, indeed, in enhancement mode.
The Commissioner must be a consensus builder in this. And, he must start immediately.
