WAC

[dfwabel]

Not to go too far off topic, but after reading this part of the press release:

"For both Cal Poly and UC Davis, aligning their football programs with the Big Sky offers the opportunity to compete in a conference with an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, continue and renew natural rivalries, and to develop new rivalries by playing the same teams each year."

Does this mean not all 1-AA conferences get automatic bids to the playoffs?

Not all of them do. They expanded the field to 20 teams this year to add 2 auto bids, but conferences like the Great West w/o enough teams (I think they only have 5...) and the Pioneer (non-scholarship) don't get automatic bids. Also, the SWAC doesn't get one, and they don't want one IIRC.

The SWAC does not take a spot in the playoffs as they schools make more money from their "classics" and the current SWAC title game than they would get from participating in the playoffs.

The SWAC is most likely to end their title game and renew the Heritage Bowl with the MEAC (under a new name the Legacy Bowl).

Also HBCU teams have historically not done well at all in the playoffs.

Correct. The MEAC has not won a playoff game since 1999.

[Seadragon76]

Not to go too far off topic, but after reading this part of the press release:

"For both Cal Poly and UC Davis, aligning their football programs with the Big Sky offers the opportunity to compete in a conference with an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, continue and renew natural rivalries, and to develop new rivalries by playing the same teams each year."

Does this mean not all 1-AA conferences get automatic bids to the playoffs?

Correct, Jimmy. There are four conferences that don't have automatic bids.

-Great West (Not enough teams to form an auto bid conference. The exception is that UC Davis, Cal Poly and Southern Utah are eligible for at-large bids)

-Ivy League (League doesn't play postseason games)

-Pioneer League (Doesn't have an auto bid yet. They've been in the process of pettioning the NCAA for one, but have yet to succeed)

-SWAC (Conference schedule conflicts with the playoffs... unless that school is NOT Grambling, Southern or Alabama State [or in the SWAC Championship Game]. If that is the case, that school could be taken as an at-large)

[cyandlux]

The conference call was a great link. Its a little repetitive with all the BYU talk, but it was a good listen if you fast forward some Q's.

What I got out of it was this:

A: The WAC plans to expand and not fold.

B: Every school seems to be fair play even FCS schools and lower.

C: They have been in discussions with Ex WAC schools, which I would assume would be the Texas schools, but you never know.

D: Their "footprint" goes from Louisiana to Montana. I think "West" is a term the WAC uses loosely.

E: At the time the 3 I mentioned in Sac St, UCD and Cal Poly were still in play, who knows now that they are switching within the FCS.

F: The targets of UTSA and Texas State offer a great footprint for a Rice and/or SMU return.

G: Denver is in play even though they don't have football, which you would think makes other non-football schools in play as well. (He mentioned one they have right now, but I don't know what school that is.)....wait a minute!!! Sac St competes in the WAC in baseball! What the? Hmmmmmm.

[BigMac12]

cyandiux, the only reason that Sac State is in the WAC for baseball is the rest of the Bis Sky Conference doesn't have baseball.

[cyandlux]

Well, IMO they could have picked any conference, even a different D2 conference for that matter.