TallTexan said:

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BigJack85 said:

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TallTexan said:

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CertifiedAxeman98 said:

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I am interested to see if the WAC comes up with another school that currently sponsors FCS football to make it 8 teams with 6 eligible. Here is a link showing that Dixie and Tarleton wont be full members until 24/25 seasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_schools_reclassifying_their_athletic_programs_to_NCAA_Division_I#:~:text=This%20is%20limited%20to%20schools%20that%20have%20officially%20announced%20plans,required%20for%20the%20reverse%20move.

That is too long to wait and why I expect the WAC to find another school to they can get the auto bid in 21/22.

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Ya I don't expect them to wait around. Names I've heard mentioned are UC Davis, Weber State, and NAU but nothing official. Just teams in the area.

Additionally, PVAMU or TSU could always be viable options.

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I read a report from a TV station in Salt Lake City saying that Weber is a NO GO Sacramento St NO GO. U of Northern Colorado maybe.

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Another Texas school would cut down travel a ton.

I don't know much about N Colorado, just that every single Big Sky fan has suggested we take them so I'm thinking no go.

NAU would be really nice. Flagstaff is awesome.

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Ya. Northern Colorado is nothing special in football. But.... they have a fine baseball program and won a NCAA Div1 CWS in the 50's , I believe. The SLC has 3 strong baseball programs (Sam, Lamar and SLU). 2 out of 3 ain't bad. You would have 3 (typically top 50) programs.

SFA_03 said:

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If the "Battle of the Lumberjacks" became a yearly rivalry think of the circus surrounding it.
Think of it. The Lumberjacks from a literal Forrest of giant pine trees, and the Lumberjacks who play in a state where I'm pretty sure trees are illegal.
"Battle of the Axe"
"The Flannel Fight"

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Exceptional. Exceptional.

I refute your evidence with my Axe.

SFA_03 said:

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I refute your evidence with my Axe.

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And, I accept that. (Some years back, I worked with a forestry grad from NAU. He schooled me on the fact there are trees in Arizona.)

To be fair, from what you can see from the road, some of these national forests look look like they're made of the equivalent of Mesquite trees.

But the ones between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon are pretty mind-blowing.

Or perhaps it was a desert mirage.

PurpleOut said:

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Quote:

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I'll be interested to hear exactly how the schools explain their reasoning for leaving the Southland, but the rationale I've heard from multiple sources is that there's a tension between the four departing Texas schools, and the remaining Texas institutions (Incarnate Word and Houston Baptist) and the Louisiana programs, mostly over financial investment in athletics. The ability to pay for additional facility improvements, staffing upgrades and other athletic department investments does not appear to be uniform across the Southland right now, and that gulf may only get wider over the next few years.

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I think this is pretty clear.

We're not building a new $26M Hoops facility to hang out with Nicholls State (nothing personal against them).

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True Dat. Pretty clear the direction. The move should give us a little more visibility.

Katfans went on a nice run about this earlier today...

HBU never addressed basketball/football. UIW did upgrades, but not enough to keep pace. UNO never really explored football (Which absolutely blows my mind. They are in a recruiting hotbed.) Nicholls couldn't fund postseason play.

Of all the teams we are leaving, I truly feel for McNeese. They put the money into their programs. They were a marquee team in football and baseball. Basketball is starting to show promise. They have the unfortunate circumstance of being located about 1 hour too far east...

Do I like being in a west coast conference? Not particularly. Does this move help us both short term and long term? Absolutely. Might not love the move, but I understand it and see there is no reason to say no.

Might bea blessing in disguise for McNeese. Their football team will continue to win and they can have a good shot at the autobid without having to add 8 million to keep up with SFA/Sam.

cboothe09 said:

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Katfans went on a nice run about this earlier today...

HBU never addressed basketball/football. UIW did upgrades, but not enough to keep pace. UNO never really explored football (Which absolutely blows my mind. They are in a recruiting hotbed.) Nicholls couldn't fund postseason play.

Of all the teams we are leaving, I truly feel for McNeese. They put the money into their programs. They were a marquee team in football and baseball. Basketball is starting to show promise. They have the unfortunate circumstance of being located about 1 hour too far east...

Do I like being in a west coast conference? Not particularly. Does this move help us both short term and long term? Absolutely. Might not love the move, but I understand it and see there is no reason to say no.

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I really see this more as a SouthWEST Conference LOL.

I've been looking at the SEC vs other power 5 conferences lately and something struck me. The SEC has a goal of being the best football conference in the land. And mission accomplished right?

But this is somewhat new. The Big 12 had an incredibly strong decade run until Nebraska and A&M torpedoed it.

Here's what I noticed. The SEC has all 14 teams pulling in the same direction towards that goal.

Tangible efforts:
Controlling bowl selections to ensure winnable matchups
Scheduling to maximize number of bowl slots with one less conference game & a mid November tune up game.

Intangible efforts:
Talking each other up as coaches
Preemptively setting the narrative
Marketing

Now the WAC obviously wouldn't have the resources they have but I see a few areas where we can improve over the Southland:

Areas:
Conference challenge for basketball

Scheduling officer( we know mid majors scheduling sucks, part of the leagues goal should be to get as many good games as possible and winnable across all sports).

Marketing director( I don't really care for a conferences social media team, the schools handle that well enough on their own, just RT/share). But the conference should have someone dedicated to contacting media outlets to pitch pieces, offer availability, schedule radio interviews across the entire region, etc. You'd be surprised how often being friendly and proactive can get you noticed, even on big stations like Austin.

Conference standards: For spending/facilities minimums, for broadcast quality(streaming is the future for conferences our size and nobody is gonna watch an SFA NMSU game that looks like it was filmed on an iphone in an earthquake), for academic achievement among athletes, etc.

Strategy consultants: a shared cost resource to help schools with everything from negotiating NLI landscape to building strong attendance for sporting events.

Basically, I want a conference committed to innovating & becoming the best mid major conference out there. The SEC does a lot of top down planning to hit their goals. We should take a page out of their book and get everyone pulling in the same direction from the start.

If you want to see the success of that goal, take a gander at what Ole Miss and Miss State, the least wealthy programs pull down before TV money. It's about 60 million per year.

Zona,Utah, Texas Tech all make less than that. The SEC has taken lemons and made lemonade.

There's certainly the potential for that in a mid major conference. A good conference should provide synergy, a multiplier effect on a schools efforts. Let's build that.

SFA_03 said:

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If the "Battle of the Lumberjacks" became a yearly rivalry think of the circus surrounding it.
Think of it. The Lumberjacks from a literal Forrest of giant pine trees, and the Lumberjacks who play in a state where I'm pretty sure trees are illegal.
"Battle of the Axe"
"The Flannel Fight"

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Flagstaff is not like the rest of the state. They have much cooler temps, tons of snow in the winter, and forests. Doesn't really fit in with Arizona at all, IMO.

Compare and contrast.

https://wacsports.com/information/directory/index

https://www.southland.org/staff.aspx

I just got rickrolled.

SFAJack_76 said:

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Compare and contrast.

https://wacsports.com/information/directory/index



https://www.southland.org/staff.aspx

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If the point you're making is that the WAC puts a lot more focus on officiating, then you MADE IT. Wow. I had no idea how little the SLC does in the officiating realm. Hmmmmm

Well played.

WAC seems to have a lot more strategic roles.

Southland has a purchasing director, because someone has to handle the conferences accounts payable.

Ironically enough, the Lamar AD's dad works at the Southland. Christmas is gonna be awkward.

This is essentially a confirmation. The Southland belongs to McNeese now.

Interesting to see the SLC mapped.

Starting to look like the Hurricane conference or Gulf Coast Conference.

BigJack85 said:

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I've got a translation of that statement: We are waiting for the BOR to approve our move to the WAC for the fall of 2021.

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I don't think it is quite there, but the special called meeting on December 17, could provide some clarity. The agenda has not been posted yet.

SFAJack_76 said:

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BigJack85 said:

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I've got a translation of that statement: We are waiting for the BOR to approve our move to the WAC for the fall of 2021.

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I don't think it is quite there, but the special called meeting on December 17, could provide some clarity. The agenda has not been posted yet.

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At this point it is just formality. IMHO. You don't call a board meeting to debate the merits of this move. It's already been run through.

BigJack85 said:

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SFAJack_76 said:

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BigJack85 said:

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I've got a translation of that statement: We are waiting for the BOR to approve our move to the WAC for the fall of 2021.

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I don't think it is quite there, but the special called meeting on December 17, could provide some clarity. The agenda has not been posted yet.

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At this point it is just formality. IMHO. You don't call a board meeting to debate the merits of this move. It's already been run through.

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I don't believe it is a done deal, but we shall see.

So far no regents meeting for Texas State System and it wasn't on last week's agenda.