Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[Germanshepherd]

WAC 2.0 is sadly dying but holy :censored: look at how geographically satisfying the Southland is

[LMU]

So, that leaves the WAC at 7 and with Cal Baptist now being isolated with GCU gone I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trying to bolt for the Big West or the WCC.  Otherwise it’s become a Texas/Utah conference.

[Seadragon76]

5 hours ago, LMU said:

So, that leaves the WAC at 7 and with Cal Baptist now being isolated with GCU gone I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trying to bolt for the Big West or the WCC.  Otherwise it’s become a Texas/Utah conference.

 

Either one would be a good fit. The Big West is basically all California schools and Hawaii while the WCC is basically all private schools.

 

Even then, the others might see the writing on the wall and get out of dodge.

[heavybass]

Utah to the ACC? I have to ask but how is that gonna work.

[jlog3000]

5 hours ago, LMU said:

So, that leaves the WAC at 7 and with Cal Baptist now being isolated with GCU gone I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trying to bolt for the Big West or the WCC.  Otherwise it’s become a Texas/Utah conference.

 

With emphasis on Texas and Utah, the WAC needs to step up if it wants to reinvent itself again like in 2013 (and let's face it, with 7 full members is not enough for the conference to retain and maintain automatic bids, at least in the D1 level, maybe in D2 or D3), or else face its imminent fate to be raided and poached and eventually be imploded. Like, it would not be surprising to see the remaining Texas schools mostly rejoining the Southland like SFA said (except Tarleton State, which would be in the SLC for the first time), although it would had done with Sam Houston (but it chose to upgrade to the FBS); and the Utah schools rejoining the Big Sky (well only Southern Utah, as Utah Valley and Dixie State... I mean Utah Tech had never competed in the BSC before).

 

But from an expansion standpoint, the only slots to fill that void must be those states (alongside the sparse ones in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas; with Wyoming being the exception because it only has one university in any level of college sports that is not the JUCO's), and mostly being D2 callups as there isn't any active D1 school that's close to that geographic footprint that wants to join the new mess compared to a decade ago (i.e.: the additions of UMKC and Chicago State).

[Burmy]

The announcement is made...except SFA is joining the conference for THIS season rather than waiting for 2025.

[jlog3000]

9 minutes ago, Burmy said:

The announcement is made...except SFA is joining the conference for THIS season rather than waiting for 2025.

 

So it's now official. Although it's a shame that SFA will not compete in a conference and yearly rivalry with SHSU going forward, cuz the latter now has bragged on being in the FBS and accepting such invite to a then-previously more desperate conference like the C-USA (which the WAC will now be in come 2025, like they were a decade or so ago).

 

In retrospect, the Texas-4 schools shouldn't had left the Southland at all in the first place back in 2021.

[Seadragon76]

Those four left the Southland because the guy in charge was a jerk, to put it nicely.

 

With a new commissioner, the conference is seeing new life and at 12 teams, they're in a perfect position.

 

As for the WAC - they need to do some heavy lifting in order to avoid being poached to death. The problem is now this - who can they get?

 

There are rumblings of Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado... but I don't see them jumping the Big Sky, a relatively safe and secure conference, for the shanty town that is the WAC. There's a whole bunch of D-II schools within their geographic footprint, but will any of them be willing to make the financial leap possible?

[DCarp1231]

The WCC official welcomes Oregon State and Washington State across all sports

 

[Burmy]

Interesting...even though the other ten Pac-12 teams' move to the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 aren't set to take effect until next month (something about the Grant of Rights), they've already been taken off the Pac-12 website.

So, for the next month, where does that leave them at?

[WestCoastBias]

On 7/1/2024 at 6:23 PM, DCarp1231 said:

The WCC official welcomes Oregon State and Washington State across all sports

 

Not all sports

[Gary]

Probably taking a grain of salt with this, but if true WOAH…

[TrueYankee26]

1 hour ago, Gary said:

Probably taking a grain of salt with this, but if true WOAH…

I have been hearing a lot of rumors about the Big 12 taking FSU, Clemson and a few other schools (at least temporarily until the P2 start going back to expansion mode). Could it be?

[kolob]

On 7/13/2024 at 2:45 PM, TrueYankee26 said:

I have been hearing a lot of rumors about the Big 12 taking FSU, Clemson and a few other schools (at least temporarily until the P2 start going back to expansion mode). Could it be?

 

I still don't know what kind of PAC?? you're going to get outside of a merger of the Mountain West. I think College Sports, or at least football, is on the road to two major conferences. The two likely left standing is the SEC and Big Ten, but it seems like the Big XII is making a case OR being a placeholder for some schools. 

 

Regardless, it's all madness.

[tyst13]

I think P2 in this case meant power 2, i.e. SEC and BIG, not Pac 2. But it's fair to lose track of what anything means regarding these conferences nowadays.

[TrueYankee26]

Yes I meant the Power 2 (B1G, SEC), I should have been clearer.

[kolob]

17 hours ago, TrueYankee26 said:

Yes I meant the Power 2 (B1G, SEC), I should have been clearer.

 

Awww ... makes more sense. 

 

Not to make this The Pointless Realignment Outpost, but I wish collegiate athletics would go back to 8-10 school regional conferences in the olympic sports, but then possibly realign themselves into "super conferences" for basketball and football. Whether that's two power conferences and 2-3 smaller ones, I just wish that a lot of the olympic sports weren't dragged into a lot of the realignment changes. 

[DuckTownHusker]

On 7/16/2024 at 11:16 AM, kolob said:

 

Awww ... makes more sense. 

 

Not to make this The Pointless Realignment Outpost, but I wish collegiate athletics would go back to 8-10 school regional conferences in the olympic sports, but then possibly realign themselves into "super conferences" for basketball and football. Whether that's two power conferences and 2-3 smaller ones, I just wish that a lot of the olympic sports weren't dragged into a lot of the realignment changes. 

 

I've said this for a long time.  Let football and maybe basketball compete in the Laser Battledome 9000 conference and then gymnastics, volleyball, baseball, etc., can go back to the Big 8, Big East, old WAC, MTN West, Pac-8, SWC, etc.

[Sec19Row53]

19 minutes ago, DuckTownHusker said:

 

I've said this for a long time.  Let football and maybe basketball compete in the Laser Battledome 9000 conference and then gymnastics, volleyball, baseball, etc., can go back to the Big 8, Big East, old WAC, MTN West, Pac-8, SWC, etc.

The Big East has essentially already done this by focusing on basketball and NOT football.

[DuckTownHusker]

21 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

The Big East has essentially already done this by focusing on basketball and NOT football.

 

Not quite.

 

I want to see BC, VT, WVU, etc., all still playing in Big East basketball, baseball, hockey, wrestling, etc.  They can all be members of whatever FBS/Power Conference thing for football, but I want to see the old regional conferences return.   West Virginia in the Big XII?  Cal + Stanford in the ACC?  It all makes no sense.

 

The current "hoops" version of the Big East is just a collection of random basketball powers.  Schools like Creighton, Georgetown or St. John's who don't also sponsor football.  What I'm talking about is moving schools like WVU, VT, etc., back to the Big East.

 

Move Nebraska, Mizzou, and Oklahoma back to Big 8 basketball.  Move Texas, A&M, etc., back to the SWC.

 

Let football be its own thing, and the regional conferences can go back to like 1992 when rivals actually played each other.