This is more confusing than the player transfer portal.

nacluth said:

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The WAC move was always a gamble. It only made reasonable sense getting a whole lot of Texas teams to join all at once. If NMSU and Sam bolt for a bigger conference, then good for them, but SFA will be left with a new Southland that's a little harder to get to.

Unfortunately, the last two years haven't been easy on SFA (not for anyone), but we particularly aren't likely to be in a position to jump anywhere. We're riding out the WAC for what it is this year. Hopefully it doesn't blow up and pays off, but essentially this is what happened after we joined the Southland.

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If the basketball teams are as good as we think they can be, they might get us a lifeline thrown in March or April.

That said, losing NMSU & replacing them with the two teams in question would be particularly dire for the basketball prospects of the league, which were really the big advantage for it.

The one thing I think the WAC has going for it is that the current commish and whoever the new commish is are likely to be far better than what the SLC is stuck with.

TallTexan said:

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BigJack85 said:

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I'll be stunned if UIW makes the cut.

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We'll know today. conference is voting on McNeese and UIW.

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I'm hoping like H*** they don't go for UIW. Terrible facilities. Terrible teams in all sports except football.

Ya any chance of growing into a two bid league is out the window with NMSU gone. But WAC is still better. SUU, GCU, CBU, & SFA would all be expected to beat the average D1 opponent based on adjusted EM.

We really need to ask ourselves what we're trying to build with UIW & McNeese, because if we take those two, the Southland actually moves up a ranking in the basketball conference standings. They'd be the worst basketball teams in the league by a significant margin.

PurpleOut said:

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I think everyone kind of agreed on this before, but I would be perfectly fine with just a single year in the WAC and then moving on if we have a better option.

I don't think anyone saw this much realignment chaos happening, so it's a different situation. But I think the Texas State situation could be similar for us. They spent one year in the WAC before moving to the Sun Belt. Not a great comparison, and it hasn't gone well for the Bobcats, just saying.

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This is why I don't want to do FBS for just FBS sake. First off, I have no dreams of watching us play in the Jumbo Car Wash Bowl.

But my goal always has been and always will be March wins. I want football to win, but I couldn't care less whether thats in District 9-5A Div 2 or the AAC. So long as wherever we're playing maximizes the chances of us playing and winning in March for the men's and women's teams.

Don't want to see us follow the Tx State example. Since their WAC 2012 season Tx St is 34-82 in FBS football. SFA is not close to ready for FBS in football....Sam going to find it's not all the way there yet.

In mens BB, Tx St is 149-138 since 2012 with much of the plus side in the last 3 seasons. SFA will be very competitive in the WAC BB long term... if we try and move after this year then ???

nacluth said:

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I think a lot of us think of athletics as its own world, and to give Ivey credit, I think he has built his own separate kingdom as much as possible. However, our president's current situation, the budgeting issues, and a faculty and staff still standing at the precipice will keep us from making any quick moves or make us look appealing to suitors. We're in the WAC for a while regardless of how we think of ourselves and what we think may be good moves.

We had a good play last year to dump the Southland, but that was probably it for a while. Let's hope caution wins the day for other schools.

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Well said. The faculty BS is mind boggling. The SFA community has raised $79 million. Most of that for students AND FACULTY. Yes, those whining pieces of ____. We have options. I'm sure of it. Being in the WAC with McNeese is not awful. Being in the WAC with McNeese AND UIW is awful.

Now the faculty issues aren't BS. The situation definitely is.

nacluth said:

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Now the faculty issues aren't BS. The situation definitely is.

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. You're probably right. It's not entirely BS. But, it seems like this comes up every 7-8 years literally. I remember this same conversation when I was an undergrad (1980-1985). Sure they need some more love etc. I don't know how raising gobs of money to support faculty, is not a positive step forward. I don't think faculty should run the university.

Kat fans are still digesting the news from last night
I would say the consensus was most wanted us to remain FCS
As to some of the other things thrown around in this thread
Conf USA baseball would be better for us and our program
Basketball it would seem to be a wash
This may all be smoke from CUSA putting this out

Well I officially want out of this conference. Let's see what the ASUN is up to.

Source: Both McNeese State University and the University of Incarnate Word are departing the Southland Conference with the intention to join the WAC.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 2, 2021

TallTexan said:

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Well I officially want out of this conference. Let's see what the ASUN is up to.

Source: Both McNeese State University and the University of Incarnate Word are departing the Southland Conference with the intention to join the WAC.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 2, 2021

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I don't understand UIW being added at all!
Mcnasty yes they bring somethings to the table

PurpleOut said:

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I don't even want McNeese. I don't have anything against them, but why would we have not brought them to begin with if they were so great?

And UIW?

Sorry...count me in as extremely disappointed.

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I absolutely just don't get the strategy here. Add two teams that make the basketball worse and will be a boat anchor on the conference?

Why would SFA, ACU, Tarleton, or RGV be happy with this?

Why not HBU too?

nacluth said:

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Why not HBU too?

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Ranked slightly higher than UIW in basketball and the drive is short. So why not?

TallTexan said:

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PurpleOut said:

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I don't even want McNeese. I don't have anything against them, but why would we have not brought them to begin with if they were so great?

And UIW?

Sorry...count me in as extremely disappointed.

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I absolutely just don't get the strategy here. Add two teams that make the basketball worse and will be a boat anchor on the conference?

Why would SFA, ACU, Tarleton, or RGV be happy with this?

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I don't get it. At all. Mystifying. Mystifying.

So......with the loss of Sam and NMSU, the WAC dream of FBS football is dead. The dream of a 2 bid March Madness league is dead. Parts of the reasoning behind leaving the SLC are now part of the WAC.
With Sam and NMSU gone the "prestige" of the WAC takes a big hit.....replaced with meh and smh.
That about cover it?!?!

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/conference-usa-adding-four-teams-but-seeking-one-more-after-being-gutted-during-realignment/

If CUSA gets Liberty, NMSU, and MTSU, then they are a legit basketball league, football notwithstanding.

First things first, nothing has been confirmed, so as far as I'm concerned SHSU isn't going anywhere.

Secondly, UIW won't hurt us as bad as we're making it out to be. They have a good football coach and with being in San Antonio they have the very slightest semblance of a recruiting market. Basketball it will hurt us, but not demolish the conference.

McNeese has a lot of upside so I actually wanted them to come with us over Lamar in the first place. They're traditionally a football power and they have had good basketball teams.

NMSU makes perfect sense to go to C-USA, so I don't see them staying in the WAC.

I still say if Sam goes to C-USA, there's no way SFA didn't get an invite as well. Our athletic department as a whole brings too much to the table to exclude us. But I don't want to see it happen either.

I don't want to rush us into the FBS, I want us to organically get there where it makes sense from a financial and strategic standpoint.

Ljacks&Longnecks said:

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So......with the loss of Sam and NMSU, the WAC dream of FBS football is dead. The dream of a 2 bid March Madness league is dead. Parts of the reasoning behind leaving the SLC are now part of the WAC.
With Sam and NMSU gone the "prestige" of the WAC takes a big hit.....replaced with meh and smh.
That about cover it?!?!

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Nailed it.

If you look at Twitter, and it's all speculation, there's a lot of talk of us getting the C-USA invite as well. Sam will be the deciding factor in our decision I'm sure. They followed us to the WAC, now we might be following them.

nacluth said:

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https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/conference-usa-adding-four-teams-but-seeking-one-more-after-being-gutted-during-realignment/

If CUSA gets Liberty, NMSU, and MTSU, then they are a legit basketball league, football notwithstanding.

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Based on the rumored lineup:
NMSU, UTEP, SAM, LA Tech, FIU, JSU, Liberty it'd be the 12th ranked conference with an Adjusted EM of 1.7. But 5 of 7 teams would be expected to beat an average D1 opponent and they could easily rise up the rankings.

Roadtrip hell though for all non football sports at the moment.

My "that about cover it" statement was more of a sarcastic shot. We were fed a high diet of calories on how fantastic moving to the WAC and leaving the lowly SLC behind and now we have half the SLC still here.

Personally don't want SFA football to go FBS. We are not even close to that level. FCS is really where we belong.

Can't agree on UIW. They don't really bring anything to the WAC. But I guess I can continue to run down to SA when we play there.

For now we are in the WAC ky conference so we play the hand and conference we get. Still with the goal of winning championships and playoffs. I'm okay with that, it's just not the Glam conference as was presented.
Kind of like the Utah schools better than the Louisiana schools we left behind anyway.

PurpleOut said:

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SFA_03 said:

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First things first, nothing has been confirmed, so as far as I'm concerned SHSU isn't going anywhere.

Secondly, UIW won't hurt us as bad as we're making it out to be. They have a good football coach and with being in San Antonio they have the very slightest semblance of a recruiting market. Basketball it will hurt us, but not demolish the conference.

McNeese has a lot of upside so I actually wanted them to come with us over Lamar in the first place. They're traditionally a football power and they have had good basketball teams.

NMSU makes perfect sense to go to C-USA, so I don't see them staying in the WAC.

I still say if Sam goes to C-USA, there's no way SFA didn't get an invite as well. Our athletic department as a whole brings too much to the table to exclude us. But I don't want to see it happen either.

I don't want to rush us into the FBS, I want us to organically get there where it makes sense from a financial and strategic standpoint.

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UIW is a bottom of the Southland athletic department. I think looking back at Commissioner's Cup standings, there was one year they finished 6th, every other it was around 10th.

Sure they have a pretty decent football team this year, but is that all we're going on? Before this season their best record was 6-5. An overall DII/FCS winning percentage of .373.

They're averaging less than 2,000 in attendance.

The last time we played there in basketball was in front of 176 people.

Nothing there makes me want to get in another relationship with them.

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All true. If the WAC does this, I will seriously question our decision to join the WAC. With little or no slack it seems to be a fool's errand. Losing NMSU hurts. Losing Sam hurts. None of this requires dipping to the bottom of the barrel to add a school that doesn't even know they have a athletics program. Believe me I've asked the 3 or 4 people I know that graduated from UIW.

NMSU votes Friday to join C-USA.

I have no doubt they go. They actually have a reason to with UTEP and needing the support of a conference. They're not supporting themselves as n FBS independent.
SHSU I still doubt.

SFA_03 said:

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I have no doubt they go. They actually have a reason to with UTEP and needing the support of a conference. They're not supporting themselves as n FBS independent.
SHSU I still doubt.

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NMSU makes a pretty nice chunk of change playing all those buy games.


Also, the sources saying NMSU were also saying SHSU, so I think that one is a near certainty.

Sources: Conference USA has invited Liberty, Jacksonville State, New Mexico State and Sam Houston to join the league. The potential of paying a $2 million entrance fee appears to be the last major issue.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 3, 2021

Well that's a solid basketball league. I doubt it will be much of a football league for a while.