UTRGV to the Southland.

Makes sense, especially now that they'll have football.

Curious what the “UAC” will do (as I believe they were originally slated to play football there)

Now with Corpus Christi, who should be a natural rival.

If the WCC loses Gonzaga at any point and goes fishing for replacements, SFA/UTA/ACU/Tarleton will be panicking.

I remember that North Texas State was in the Southland when I was a kid, it seemed like a Very Important Conference back then...the move to 1A - 1AA, then FBS FCS hasn't been kind to them, though they seem to keep trucking along and doing pretty well. UTRGV will be a solid addition for them. The valley is booming and UTRGV is a program on the rise.

(03-20-2024 09:02 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  I remember that North Texas State was in the Southland when I was a kid, it seemed like a Very Important Conference back then...the move to 1A - 1AA, then FBS FCS hasn't been kind to them, though they seem to keep trucking along and doing pretty well. UTRGV will be a solid addition for them. The valley is booming and UTRGV is a program on the rise.

That was a geographically tight conference that got broken up by the I-A/I-AA split.
Now:
North Texas-American
Louisiana Tech-CUSA
Arkansas St., UL Monroe, UL Lafayette-Sun Belt
McNeese-Southland
Lamar-back in Southland
UT Arlington-WAC

It gets the Southland up to 11 members with nine playing football. So that benefits them as they can have a full eight game schedule.

It drops the WAC to ten. It leaves them with four in Texas who are all fairly close to each other and sheds the more remote Texas school. That will help everyone on travel.

On the downside it kills their chances (for now) of sponsoring football as just five members field a team so they will have to keep the UAC alliance going and hope the ASUN doesn’t expand on their end.

(03-20-2024 09:19 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  It gets the Southland up to 11 members with nine playing football. So that benefits them as they can have a full eight game schedule.

It drops the WAC to ten. It leaves them with four in Texas who are all fairly close to each other and sheds the more remote Texas school. That will help everyone on travel.

On the downside it kills their chances (for now) of sponsoring football as just five members field a team so they will have to keep the UAC alliance going and hope the ASUN doesn’t expand on their end.

I would think SLC would want to add one more to get to even numbers (would they try to lure one of the former SLC member back like ACU or UCA?)

Perhaps the Summit League could pick up a men's soccer replacement for WIU.

(03-20-2024 09:19 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  It gets the Southland up to 11 members with nine playing football. So that benefits them as they can have a full eight game schedule.

It drops the WAC to ten. It leaves them with four in Texas who are all fairly close to each other and sheds the more remote Texas school. That will help everyone on travel.

On the downside it kills their chances (for now) of sponsoring football as just five members field a team so they will have to keep the UAC alliance going and hope the ASUN doesn’t expand on their end.

It’s finally time Angelo State, Central Oklahoma, & West Texas A&M to move up from DII and UTA to restart football.

Those 4 + SFA/TSU/ACU/SUU/UTU would give the WAC 9 football members and they can let the ASUN figure out their own football needs. Maybe they can finally add UWF/Valdosta St. to get them to 7 + add 2 affiliates. (The Big South 2 or those 2 that left the NEC)

I wonder if they could get SFA to comeback to the SLC while theyre at it?

(03-20-2024 09:02 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  I remember that North Texas State was in the Southland when I was a kid, it seemed like a Very Important Conference back then...the move to 1A - 1AA, then FBS FCS hasn't been kind to them, though they seem to keep trucking along and doing pretty well. UTRGV will be a solid addition for them. The valley is booming and UTRGV is a program on the rise.

North Texas has an interesting history. It seems like they wanted to follow Houston's footsteps into the SWC with Hayden Fry as their coach and they even played in Cowboys Stadium. This is before they joined the Southland.

The Texas wing of the WAC is just frittering away to nothing.

(03-20-2024 09:41 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(03-20-2024 09:02 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  I remember that North Texas State was in the Southland when I was a kid, it seemed like a Very Important Conference back then...the move to 1A - 1AA, then FBS FCS hasn't been kind to them, though they seem to keep trucking along and doing pretty well. UTRGV will be a solid addition for them. The valley is booming and UTRGV is a program on the rise.

North Texas has an interesting history. It seems like they wanted to follow Houston's footsteps into the SWC with Hayden Fry as their coach and they even played in Cowboys Stadium. This is before they joined the Southland.

I remember that. The school then known as North Texas State had left the Missouri Valley and was playing as an independent. They played home games at Texas Stadium in an attempt to get to big-time college football, which was then played in the SWC. Hayden Fry left for Iowa, and NTSU eventually dropped to what was then I-AA and joined the Southland.

(03-20-2024 09:00 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Now with Corpus Christi, who should be a natural rival.

If the WCC loses Gonzaga at any point and goes fishing for replacements, SFA/UTA/ACU/Tarleton will be panicking.

I wonder if UTA would consider the Summit - the Summit needs warm bodies, although ones that sponsor baseball and soccer are preferable. They're close enough to Oral Roberts to serve as a travel partner.

SFA and Tarleton would likely try to go to C-USA. ACU probably returns to the Southland.

Not sure what options Utah Valley has if the WAC collapses. The Southern Utah/Utah Tech/Grand Canyon/Cal Baptist quad would at least be reasonable if another conference needed members for their own survival, as one flight to Las Vegas would allow for a team to knockout games at two of those four schools.

Even if the WAC keeps Seattle, they probably need to start finding replacements from Division II out west. I just don't see a future for them in Texas.

(03-20-2024 09:50 PM)johnintx Wrote:  

(03-20-2024 09:41 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(03-20-2024 09:02 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  I remember that North Texas State was in the Southland when I was a kid, it seemed like a Very Important Conference back then...the move to 1A - 1AA, then FBS FCS hasn't been kind to them, though they seem to keep trucking along and doing pretty well. UTRGV will be a solid addition for them. The valley is booming and UTRGV is a program on the rise.

North Texas has an interesting history. It seems like they wanted to follow Houston's footsteps into the SWC with Hayden Fry as their coach and they even played in Cowboys Stadium. This is before they joined the Southland.

I remember that. The school then known as North Texas State had left the Missouri Valley and were playing as an independent. They played home games at Texas Stadium in an attempt to get to big-time college football, which was then played in the SWC. Hayden Fry left for Iowa, and NTSU eventually dropped to what was then I-AA and joined the Southland.

Darrell Royal, then AD at Texas talked favorably of adding North Texas to the SWC.
Darrell was one of the greatest coaches and would probably be up near or over 300 wins if he didn't retire at 55. But he wasn't a businessman. He couldn't see the SWC was already an anachronism.

(03-20-2024 09:41 PM)esayem Wrote:  North Texas has an interesting history. It seems like they wanted to follow Houston's footsteps into the SWC with Hayden Fry as their coach and they even played in Cowboys Stadium. This is before they joined the Southland.

Then known as North Texas State, the Eagles did play at Texas Stadium (not Cowboys Stadium, the placeholder name for Jerry World before AT&T) with hopes of additional SWC expansion that never came. Ironically, as they moved back on campus to play in I-AA, SMU moved from the Cotton Bowl to Texas Stadium, averaging almost 50,000 a game in 1978 and 1979.

(03-20-2024 08:49 PM)AstAteMan Wrote:  Curious what the “UAC” will do (as I believe they were originally slated to play football there)

UAC still has 9 with the addition if West Georgia starting 24.

The whole WAC/ASun/Southland saga has been weird. The WAC/ASun/UAC is probably a slightly better conference on the whole, with more ambitious teams, but you've had teams like Lamar bounce back and forth between the two, UIW flirt with the WAC but stay in the Southland, and now this move.

I think it fits UTRGV. Gives them more close rivals and limits their travel to California/Washington/Utah. Might have burned some bridges though since I would wager the WAC was depending on them to be able to ditch the UAC thing and just make WAC football.

The WAC is FAR ABOVE the ASUN and especially Southland. just look at the conference NET RANKINGS WAC #14 ( WAS 12) ASUN #26 Southland #27 RGV like Lamar could not be competitive in the WAC and joined a league that would give them a chance to be competitive. NO WAY ACU or SFA would rejoin the Southland.