The potential trickle-down effect with the Mountain West/WAC

[AZGrizFan]

The sports would have to be women's because the football team would get 22 more scholarships if they moved to FBS. They would have to stay Title IX compliant.

Title IX is going to kill college football.

[Mike Johnson]

The sports would have to be women's because the football team would get 22 more scholarships if they moved to FBS. They would have to stay Title IX compliant.

That is a good point. However, UM has 6 men's and 8 women's. The minimum required for FBS is 16 sports, including 7 men's and 8 women's. They need to add one men's sport to meet that minimum requirement. Adding scholarships for football as well may require more than one additional women's sport to remain compliant.

Last year, they reported $1,911,078 in scholarships for men's teams (60%) and $1,275,998 for women's teams (40%) for a total of $3,187,076 in scholarships. The full time undergraduate population includes 4648 men (47.6%) and 5124 (52.4%) women. So, they are not compliant on the first prong (practically nobody is). They are either compliant on the second or third prong. The second prong is about progress (i.e., the scholarship ratio moving closer to the student body population on the long term trend). The third prong is about proving that there is not sufficient interest in more women's sports among the female student body.

While they would be authorized 22 more scholarships, they won't have to fund them right away. Of course, they would want to to be competitive.

[SDHornet]

The sports would have to be women's because the football team would get 22 more scholarships if they moved to FBS. They would have to stay Title IX compliant.

Title IX is going to kill college football.

It already has been...

[Fresno St. Alum]

I really hope the WAC makes it though this and brings up a lot of you FCSer. I think UTSA, Texas St. are locks. I think Sac St. will be the next to join after. I'm not sure Montana is wants to go, I hope they do. I think the WAC will leave membership open until they hit 12. So Montana, UC Davis, Cal Poly, Portland St. if and whenever they're are ready can race for the last 3 spots. A reason for 12 is you never know if BYU and Air Force get a B12 invite in 5 years or TCU goes to a split BE. La Tech, UTSA may get an invite from the Sun Belt, which would be the higher ranked conf. I guess you'd have to give them an outside shot at CUSA if 3 schools go with TCU to a split BE if that ever happens. Hawaii & Utah St. could replace the 2 lost MWC members. Plus there's a real chance that Hawaii goes Indy soon.

[CatMom]

The sports would have to be women's because the football team would get 22 more scholarships if they moved to FBS. They would have to stay Title IX compliant.

That is a good point. However, UM has 6 men's and 8 women's. The minimum required for FBS is 16 sports, including 7 men's and 8 women's. They need to add one men's sport to meet that minimum requirement. Adding scholarships for football as well may require more than one additional women's sport to remain compliant.

Last year, they reported $1,911,078 in scholarships for men's teams (60%) and $1,275,998 for women's teams (40%) for a total of $3,187,076 in scholarships. The full time undergraduate population includes 4648 men (47.6%) and 5124 (52.4%) women. So, they are not compliant on the first prong (practically nobody is). They are either compliant on the second or third prong. The second prong is about progress (i.e., the scholarship ratio moving closer to the student body population on the long term trend). The third prong is about proving that there is not sufficient interest in more women's sports among the female student body.

While they would be authorized 22 more scholarships, they won't have to fund them right away. Of course, they would want to to be competitive.

I brought this up on BCF about UTSA also. While football gives them 16 sports, I felt it would force them to add women's. My statement was based on plain scholiies and not dollars and I was shot down, to a degree. But, as I see it I was sort of right if it is dollar and percentage based. Their current athletics only entails 41.8 men's scholarships...the women's is @ 85. When you add football schollies to this the mens goes up to 104.8 (if FCS), leaving the women at 85.
Wouldn't this significantly throw the percentages and dollars out of whack and require them to add more women's sports?
I went about this assuming all the available scholarships are currently assigned and in use.

[BearIt]

I brought this up on BCF about UTSA also. While football gives them 16 sports, I felt it would force them to add women's. My statement was based on plain scholiies and not dollars and I was shot down, to a degree. But, as I see it I was sort of right if it is dollar and percentage based. Their current athletics only entails 41.8 men's scholarships...the women's is @ 85. When you add football schollies to this the mens goes up to 104.8 (if FCS), leaving the women at 85.
Wouldn't this significantly throw the percentages and dollars out of whack and require them to add more women's sports?
I went about this assuming all the available scholarships are currently assigned and in use.

I don't think Title ix means you have to be exactly the same. I think it has to be proportional to the enrollment of each gender. In other words if your campus is 60-40 men to women, then you can have 60% of all atheletic scholarships go to men, which would be pretty close for your example above.

[Fresno St. Alum]

Good news and possible bad news

Good: It seems CUSA is ready to add Temple as a replacement for Houston should they go to the MWC. Thus keeping La Tech in the WAC and keeping the FCS to FBS dreams alive for you guys and me.

Bad: I'm still hearing there's a strong chance that BYU goes Indy which would probably stop Houston and UTEP from coming on as 11 and 12. They'd probably add Utah St. and maybe keep BYU for bbala and add Hawaii for fb only which would kill the WAC for sure.

Good that could come out of BYU leaving is that 2 CUSA schools are still willing to join or the MWC stays at 10 also keeping WAC hope alive.

[SDHornet]

Good news and possible bad news

Good: It seems CUSA is ready to add Temple as a replacement for Houston should they go to the MWC. Thus keeping La Tech in the WAC and keeping the FCS to FBS dreams alive for you guys and me.

Bad: I'm still hearing there's a strong chance that BYU goes Indy which would probably stop Houston and UTEP from coming on as 11 and 12. They'd probably add Utah St. and maybe keep BYU for bbala and add Hawaii for fb only which would kill the WAC for sure.

Good that could come out of BYU leaving is that 2 CUSA schools are still willing to join or the MWC stays at 10 also keeping WAC hope alive.

I don’t know if LA Tech staying in the WAC is good news. I would love to see them leave so if a move is made (I’m obviously thinking of Sac State here), that geographic outlier is gone. However if they do stay, it means the WAC will place TX State and UTSA at the top of their priority list (if they aren’t at the top already).

[clenz]

Title IX is going to kill college football.

It already has been...

It's already killed baseball and wrestling.

[Fresno St. Alum]

Good news and possible bad news

Good: It seems CUSA is ready to add Temple as a replacement for Houston should they go to the MWC. Thus keeping La Tech in the WAC and keeping the FCS to FBS dreams alive for you guys and me.

Bad: I'm still hearing there's a strong chance that BYU goes Indy which would probably stop Houston and UTEP from coming on as 11 and 12. They'd probably add Utah St. and maybe keep BYU for bbala and add Hawaii for fb only which would kill the WAC for sure.

Good that could come out of BYU leaving is that 2 CUSA schools are still willing to join or the MWC stays at 10 also keeping WAC hope alive.

I don’t know if LA Tech staying in the WAC is good news. I would love to see them leave so if a move is made (I’m obviously thinking of Sac State here), that geographic outlier is gone. However if they do stay, it means the WAC will place TX State and UTSA at the top of their priority list (if they aren’t at the top already).

They need La Tech around until they get 9 Members. UTSA, Texas St., Sac St. will probably be the 1st 3 to say yes as long as there is a WAC. Then La Tech can leave and there will still be 8 to count as a FBS conf. Then they can work on Montana, UC Davis, Portland St. and Cal Poly as options.

[Herky]

There has been mention of UTSA and Texas State going FBS, however, after what has happened to the WAC I don't think the odds are in their favor of getting an invite.

LA Tech is currently talking to C-USA, so there goes one of the two regional foes.

NMSU has not been contacted and has not contacted the Sun Belt. That's the only thing working in their favor.

Texas State and UTSA have made it very clear that the WAC would be a stepping stone i.e. "we're just going to use your conference Benson, just like Fresno and Nevada did, until something a little better comes along."

[chrisattsu]

There has been mention of UTSA and Texas State going FBS, however, after what has happened to the WAC I don't think the odds are in their favor of getting an invite.

LA Tech is currently talking to C-USA, so there goes one of the two regional foes.

NMSU has not been contacted and has not contacted the Sun Belt. That's the only thing working in their favor.

Texas State and UTSA have made it very clear that the WAC would be a stepping stone i.e. "we're just going to use your conference Benson, just like Fresno and Nevada did, until something a little better comes along."

I would like to see where our administration (or anyone affiliated with our university) has gone on record and said that.

On the other side of the coin, every conference is a stepping stone for the teams involved, you are the only one that can look out for your best interests. D2 teams get ridiculed when they move to FCS, and the same holds true for FCS to FBS, FBS to BCS, even BCS-to-BCS to a lesser degree.

Texas State will "use the WAC" in the same way that-
Arkansas "used" the Southwest Conference as a stepping stone to the SEC.
Miami and VA TECH used the Big East to get to the ACC
Nebraska used the Big XII as a stepping stone to the Big Ten
Colorado and Utah used to the PAC.

I see the Texas schools being bashed on a number of messageboards because "They will bolt the first chance they get" , "they are not 'western' enough", "they don't want to be here".

Our institutional goal is to play good football. We want to move to FBS. If the WAC is willing to take us, then we will play in the WAC to the best of our abilities and attempt to make as much noise and money as possible. I would hope that SAC State or Poly or Davis would strive for the same thing. If that success somehow leads us to another conference, then so be it.

[Fresno St. Alum]

Fact: UTSA and Texas St. are at the top of the WACs list as long as there is a WAC because both have said they are ready now. No one else has said they are.

Also CUSA has other options and it is highly like that La Tech is NOT #1 on their list. The rumor last week was that Temple was the replacement. There's also UNT, MTSU, FAU.

[Fresno St. Alum]

Unless we go to 16 team fb conferences, not many will be able to jump anywhere. Say BYU stays and MWC adds Houston. Temple goes to CUSA
CUSA 12
MWC 12
B10 12
P12 12
SEC 12
MAC 12
SBC 10/12 (They could add 2)
B12 10 (maybe adds 2 in 5 years, say BYU and Air Force)
BE 8/16 (they could add 4 if they split but they had the chance this summer and didn't)
WAC 6 (add UTSA, Texas St., Sac St. and add 3 more later if they can)

MWC replaces them with UTEP, Hawaii or Utah St.

So I could see La Tech and NMSU go to the Sun Belt maybe UTSA goes instead of NMSU. But that is the only stepping stone, 2 spots for the non BCS schools other than the 6 spots in the WAC(the stone). Maybe a 3rd spot for a team to CUSA if UTEP is a replacement but don't count on it. By then Charlotte will be ready to fill it.

minus a split or 16 team super conferences.

[S F State Gaters]

couple of things-

1. everyone is completely stuck in the WAC right now- none of the remaining six is wanted by any conference they want to be in, or wants to be in any conference that would want them. They all have to stick together at this point.

2. La Tech isn't wanted by the CUSA, SJSU and Hawai'i aren't really wanted by anyone else, and everyone is faced with moving down or finding a place that doesn't involve flying all over the country.

3. nobody in the WAC right now is particularly happy, and each will be pursuing their own agendas. UH and SJSU are linked, as are NMSU, USU, and Idaho are similar, and La Tech is more of an outlier than ever but like the others not excited about owning the Sun Belt.

4. Each team wants to uplift their own local candidates, and Benson (who has proven over two decades that he is by no means the strongest comish of the bunch) will struggle with all of these different objectives