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?