How To Save The WAC

[superman7515]

I think someone has been reading too many fan message boards...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1071435-3-plans-to-save-the-western-athletic-conference#/articles/1071435-3-plans-to-save-the-western-athletic-conference/page/3

http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/001/934/302/easterndiv_display_image.jpg?1330517400


Step 4: Meet with the top FCS schools in the southest and invite them to join you new division with the understanding that it will split off into a free standing conference in a few years.

Consider the schools out there:

Georgia Southern - Southern Conference - Longtime FCS power located fairly close to Jacksonville, a large city in talent hotbed florida that has no native FBS or FCS programs. 11th in attendance at the FCS level in 2011 at 17,701.

Appalachian State - So Con - Longtime FCS power located in the Charlotte DMA north of Charlotte. May suprisingly be every interested FBS conference's second choice to UNC Charlotte. Lead FCS in attendance last year with 26,211 per game.

UNC Charlotte - I-AAA Atlantic 10 - The longtime Charlotte based C-USA member school is throwing money into a startup football program in hopes of getting an FBS invite. They have a well developed basketball program. Recently Charlotte was admired by the ECU Chancellor and Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson.

Georgia State - Colonial Athletic Association - GSU is an Atlanta university that recently added football playing in the Georgia Dome. With former NFL Coach Dan Reeves involved behind the scenes, and former Georgia Tech, Alabama, and Kentucky Head Coach Bill Curry running the football program, there is little to suggest Georgia State is looking at a long stay in the FCS ranks. They were 18th in attendance at the FCS level in 2011 with 14,286 per game.

Villanova - CAA/Big East - Football only member. Villanova could be a key to getting this deal done. They want to play AQ football in their oylmpic sports conference home (the Big East), but the Big East doesn't want to promote them from the FCS level. This would create a very natural stepping stone for Villanova.

Old Dominion - CAA - Norfolk based school's run of sellouts since adding football 3 years ago has their fans thinking FBS. 6th in FCS attendance in 2011 with 19,818 per game.

James Madison - CAA - Large public school in Western Virginia averaged 25,002 per game in 2011, second best in the FCS.

Delaware - CAA - Longtime FCS power shares Montana's ennui about the FBS, but probably like Montana they also see the writing on the wall about the financial future of FCS. If the best part of their conference moves up, one would think they would too. 7th in attendance in the FCS at 19,019 in 2011.

Florida A&M - MEAC - Located on the fringes of both FCS HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) footprints, FAMU had planned to jump to the FBS world last decade but the plans fell through. Given their geographical problems at the FCS level, could this be the first HBCU to make an historic jump to the FBS ranks? A perfect access point for the conference membership into the Florida recruting region that is so important to fullign out competitive rosters at the FBS level. Eigth in attendance at the FCS level at 18,746 in 2011.

Liberty - Liberty is serious about a move to FBS. Hiring Turner Gill says that. The fact their old FCS coach made over $400K a year says they take building a football program seriously. Liberty is a very large private religious university founded by Jerry Falwell. They had financial problems for years, but when Falwell died his insurance policy erased them. Now they have plenty of money. With over 12,000 residential students and over 60,000+ online students at any time, Liberty has a very real shot of fulfilling their goal of becoming the Notre Dame or BYU of evangelicals. The 12,000 student enrollment should deliver competitive turnouts at the stadium and the online alumnibase could really help TV viewership for a conference as well as pump in revenue as boosters for Liberty's efforts. Was 15th in attendance at the FCS level last year with 16,419 per game.

[MplsBison]

Merge with Sun Belt.

[Saint3333]

That is a solid conference, but I'd leave the Florida programs off the list.

If those teams moved off a move like that they'd be playing chess in a game of checkers.

[Cocky]

If the message boards are correct and all of the schools are wanting to move to FBS, this maybe a sellable option. Getting in FBS is the hard part now unlike the old independent route days. Tx State and UTSA are prefect examples of just getting in.

This list would have a reasonable chance of passing the SB, MAC and giving CUSA/MWC a run for the highest non AQ conference.

[JSUBison]

The WAC is worth saving?

[henfan]

I missed in the blogpost the part about the competitive and financial incentives for Delaware in this fantasy FBS conference. Where does the revenue come from to pay for stadium upgrades, additional schollies, Title IX equivalancies, etc.? What post-season guarantees could be made that wouldn't bleed revenue from the AD?xcrazyx

[ASUMountaineer]

I missed in the blogpost the part about the competitive and financial incentives for Delaware in this fantasy FBS conference. Where does the revenue come from to pay for stadium upgrades, additional schollies, Title IX equivalancies, etc.? What post-season guarantees could be made that wouldn't bleed revenue from the AD?xcrazyx

It's Bleacher Report...need I say more?

[Smitty]

Just let the WAC die off... No reason to try and save it.

[TheRevSFA]

Put NDSU in the WAC. That means Lakes would find new boards to troll

[Apphole]

He mentions UNCC's praise from ECU, yet leaves that detail out of the ASU section. Strange considering the praise was for both schools, App immediately and UNCC after a few years.

"We’d love to consider Appalachian State and Charlotte down the road in a few years," Ballard said

http://gmine.blogspot.com/2012/02/49ers-app-state-possibilities-for-new.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter


Sounds like everything we're looking for though as far as a regionally based, FBS conference. I be more excited if it wasn't the BR. Almost as bad as the Charlotte Observer's sports reporting.

[alvinkayak6]

Is VCU starting football? I seem to be missing something.

[WH49er]

He mentions UNCC's praise from ECU, yet leaves that detail out of the ASU section. Strange considering the praise was for both schools, App immediately and UNCC after a few years.

"We’d love to consider Appalachian State and Charlotte down the road in a few years," Ballard said

http://gmine.blogspot.com/2012/02/49ers-app-state-possibilities-for-new.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter


Sounds like everything we're looking for though as far as a regionally based, FBS conference. I be more excited if it wasn't the BR. Almost as bad as the Charlotte Observer's sports reporting.


You can't leave the **** alone, can you? It's like a drug for you.

[Apphole]

You can't leave the **** alone, can you? It's like a drug for you.

Just a proponent of decent journalism. You seem to be the one with an issue.

[WH49er]

Just a proponent of decent journalism.


Then you may want to avoid bleacher report.

[Apphole]

Then you may want to avoid bleacher report.
Oh you're preaching to the choir. My OP was critical of the article FYI.

[bojeta]

The Bleacher Report is the favorite haunt of the Save the WAC Wackos. Here's yet another set of wild schemes which includes one plan for co-opting Cal Poly and UC Davis as well as plans to merge with the Sun Belt etc.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1071435-3-plans-to-save-the-western-athletic-conference

[LakesBison]

The Wac Attack needs NDSU,MONTANA, MONTANA ST, IL STATE.

[darell1976]

The Bleacher Report is the favorite haunt of the Save the WAC Wackos. Here's yet another set of wild schemes which includes one plan for co-opting Cal Poly and UC Davis as well as plans to merge with the Sun Belt etc.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1071435-3-plans-to-save-the-western-athletic-conference

I wonder if the WAC will try to go after the Big Sky teams again...and since UND is a member of the WAC in swimming and diving if they will try to go after us too. (of course UND's football stadium isn't ready for the FBS it only holds 13,500.)

[MplsBison]

I wonder if the WAC will try to go after the Big Sky teams again...and since UND is a member of the WAC in swimming and diving if they will try to go after us too. (of course UND's football stadium isn't ready for the FBS it only holds 13,500.)

I do believe that the attendance requirement can be satisfied by either actual attendance or paid attendance.

So that brings a question to my mind: what if some how, UND sold 15k football tickets to every football game - even though they don't have that many seats in the stadium?

They still sold that many tickets.

[Redbirdz]

Something like this will be in place for 2013 and the Sunbelt will have some real competition. I look for Jacksonville State and Ap State to be a part of it.

[darell1976]

I do believe that the attendance requirement can be satisfied by either actual attendance or paid attendance.

So that brings a question to my mind: what if some how, UND sold 15k football tickets to every football game - even though they don't have that many seats in the stadium?

They still sold that many tickets.

Kinda like what Eastern Michigan does...they sell 15,000 tickets but only have 3000 people in the seats. Thats an interesting point. The rule does state the school can go by actual or paid. I am sure if schools did that just to move up they would do something about it.

[bojeta]

And if you discount all the empty seats to say.... $1 and buy them all....... did you meet the requirement?

[LakesBison]

Mpls, dont quote him I have him on ignore, then I see it,when quoted but HOLY **** THATS HILARIOUS....und fbs hahaha thanks for the drunkin laughs HAHAHAHAHA



I do believe that the attendance requirement can be satisfied by either actual attendance or paid attendance.

So that brings a question to my mind: what if some how, UND sold 15k football tickets to every football game - even though they don't have that many seats in the stadium?

They still sold that many tickets.

[Cocky]

Free ticket with a coke purchase at the stadium would sell most of your tickets. With no passes out it would be hard to give them away but the tickets could go in the sold category.

[MplsBison]

Kinda like what Eastern Michigan does...they sell 15,000 tickets but only have 3000 people in the seats. Thats an interesting point. The rule does state the school can go by actual or paid. I am sure if schools did that just to move up they would do something about it.

Except Eastern's stadium could easily seat 15k people if they all showed up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rynearson_Stadium


UND's stadium could not. But I just wonder that if they could still sell 15k tickets anyway, would that still count?

[MplsBison]

And if you discount all the empty seats to say.... $1 and buy them all....... did you meet the requirement?

Nope - the NCAA actually does have a rule against this.

I can't remember the exact numbers, but it works something like this: you can only count tickets sold for an amount that is no less than some percentage of the most expensive ticket sold.


In other words, you can't sell 1000 club tickets for $50 each and then turn around and sell 14k general admission tickets for $5 each. That's the idea anyway.

[henfan]

Attendance numbers mean nothing since the NCAA decided that school's could self-monitor gate counts. The weak FBS conferences managed to gut most of the recommendations put forth earlier last decade by the NCAA to make D-I football stronger, including the minimum attendance requirements.

There is very little distinction between the upper to mid-level FCS programs and lower level FBS programs. IMO, it's time to do away with the largely meaningless sub-division classifications and simply let the D-I conferences decide if they prefer to participate in NCAA or BCS post-seasons.

[MplsBison]

Attendance numbers mean nothing since the NCAA decided that school's could self-monitor gate counts. The weak FBS conferences managed to gut most of the recommendations put forth earlier last decade by the NCAA to make D-I football stronger, including the minimum attendance requirements.

There is very little distinction between the upper to mid-level FCS programs and lower level FBS programs. IMO, it's time to do away with the largely meaningless sub-division classifications and simply let the D-I conferences decide if they prefer to participate in NCAA or BCS post-seasons.

There should be no minimum attendance requirements to have a varsity football program in DI. If the school has the money to invest in the program to meet the high levels of scholarships, coaches' salaries and facilities required for that level of competition - good for that school! Let them participate!

I agree with you 100%, there should be a single DI football - like there is in basketball. There should be an NCAA sponsored and administered tournament for any school that qualifies and does not accept an invitation to another post-season opportunity (like a bowl game).

There should be a single set of scholarship equivalency limits for the entire division, as well. Minimum of 50, maximum of 80 - or something in that range.

If you can't meet that, then you can't have a varsity program in DI - end of story. And before anyone gets mad, note that it says scholarship equivalencies - not scholarships. There is a difference, educate yourself.