OT: WAC expansion, Chicago St out in 2022

[squirrel]

WAC is expected to announce FCS football today, with expansion involving Lamar, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, and Abilene Christian from the Southland Conference, and Southern Utah from the Big Sky.

In a bit of a surprise UT Rio Grande Valley is set to announce football. Some speculation that Grand Canyon could be prepared to announce the same.

Chicago State will reportedly be exiting the league in 2022.

[squirrel]

Press conference live at 11 (central) here: https://www.wacdigitalnetwork.com/

Not sure if it will be behind a paywall or not.

Edit: Presser is open and free.

[tribecalledquest]

WAC is expected to announce FCS football today, with expansion involving Lamar, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, and Abilene Christian from the Southland Conference, and Southern Utah from the Big Sky.

In a bit of a surprise UT Rio Grande Valley is set to announce football. Some speculation that Grand Canyon could be prepared to announce the same.

Chicago State will reportedly be exiting the league in 2022.

Really good move for the WAC. Provides better competiton for New Mexico State and becomes way more regionalized.

[squirrel]

The WAC will now have an odd number of 13 members, which would leave an open seat for one more add.

This could depend on if there will remain at least 1 non-football member, and whether that would be balanced by a second.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

Elevates the conference basketball profile for all involved.

Conference NET
'18-'19 | SLC 29 | oldWAC 16 | newWAC 14
'19-'20 | SLC 30 | oldWAC 25 | newWAC 18

Texas-4 sheds the Louisiana schools (whose budgets have been hit hard since Jindal) and HBU/UIW (who play in 5k/1k and 6k/2k FB/BB capacity facilities). Dixie/Tarleton's budgets are from D2 so they're higher now (Tarleton passed an increased athletics fee).

Texas-4 AD budgets:
Lamar $18.5 M
ACU $18.4 M
SHSU $17.8 M
SFA $17.5 M



Travel, presuming a 7th Texas school (West Texas A&M?), isn't too bad if they split into 2 divisions. One FB flight to Utah and two BB flights per season.



Red year = Spring semester of school year

[squirrel]

A Valley-WAC series would be good for 2-3 years. . .

[TheAsianSensation]

I don't see the elevated basketball product in the WAC that others seem to see.

[squirrel]

I don't see the elevated basketball product in the WAC that others seem to see.

The WAC has averaged about 4 20+ win teams the last handful of years. You're adding the two historically dominant programs in the Southland in SFA and SHSU. Abilene Christian has quietly averaged 23 wins the past couple seasons and is 10-2 now. And Cal Baptist proved quite successful in their initial DI campaign (21-10). But for CBU, it's just one season, so not a track record to go on yet.

And many of those programs have had to do it with comparatively tough schedules (minus the freebies vs. Chicago St )

I'm admittedly bullish on GCU blowing up. It's still a big assumption that things will fall into place. . .but at least on paper it does seem like a really good makeup on the hardwood.

But the big question is what happens now as football becomes the focus and will that have a negative impact on the basketball.

[TheAsianSensation]

I don't see the elevated basketball product in the WAC that others seem to see.

The WAC has averaged about 4 20+ win teams the last handful of years. You're adding the two historically dominant programs in the Southland in SFA and SHSU. Abilene Christian has quietly averaged 23 wins the past couple seasons and is 10-2 now. And Cal Baptist proved quite successful in their initial DI campaign (21-10). But for CBU, it's just one season, so not a track record to go on yet.

And many of those programs have had to do it with comparatively tough schedules (minus the freebies vs. Chicago St )

I'm admittedly bullish on GCU blowing up. It's still a big assumption that things will fall into place. . .but at least on paper it does seem like a really good makeup on the hardwood.

But the big question is what happens now as football becomes the focus and will that have a negative impact on the basketball.

I don't trust success in the Southland to translate to anywhere else. It was just far too easy for SFA and SHSU to run the show in there. I feel like a lot of 20-12 campaigns are going to translate to 16-16 in the WAC.

Football won't be very good in the conference for awhile I think, and that'll be the long-term war fought in this league. Some of these programs are going to want this conference to be a football conference. Some want it to be a basketball conference. This could get ugly in 15 years, but making it 15 years is probably a goal in itself.

[squirrel]

True, and I of course recognize that possibility.

I always use the A10 expansion in the early 1990's as an example. . .the working theory when the A10 expanded was that La Salle would stay strong, Fordham's dominance in the Patriot League would carry over because now they could offer scholarships, and Xavier and Dayton would also remain strong like La Salle. . .

But Xavier was the only one that had meaningful success initially.

[squirrel]

[squirrel]

Elevates the conference basketball profile for all involved.

Conference NET
'18-'19 | SLC 29 | oldWAC 16 | newWAC 14
'19-'20 | SLC 30 | oldWAC 25 | newWAC 18

Texas-4 sheds the Louisiana schools (whose budgets have been hit hard since Jindal) and HBU/UIW (who play in 5k/1k and 6k/2k FB/BB capacity facilities). Dixie/Tarleton's budgets are from D2 so they're higher now (Tarleton passed an increased athletics fee).

Texas-4 AD budgets:
Lamar $18.5 M
ACU $18.4 M
SHSU $17.8 M
SFA $17.5 M



Travel, presuming a 7th Texas school (West Texas A&M?), isn't too bad if they split into 2 divisions. One FB flight to Utah and two BB flights per season.



Red year = Spring semester of school year

Great stuff

[theheemymonster]

Doug Elgin better be on the phone with Chicago State!

[JMM28]

Doug Elgin better be on the phone with Chicago State!

Gary Roberts would support this. “It’s in Chicago, Donna!”