According to the details of the agenda, no exit fee will be required to the WAC, and the entry fee to the Sun Belt is $300,000.
The agenda says that had the Sun Belt been available as an option previously, UT-A would have "moved in that direction." It states as positives to the move a compact geographical alignment and the ability to continue competition against Texas State.
The move continues Karl Benson's siphoning of his old home, as Texas State earlier accepted an invitation to the Sun Belt. This leaves the WAC with the current 2013 membership of Idaho, New Mexico State, Denver, Seattle, and Boise State.
Of Idaho, I wrote my opinion on the path it should embrace previously. New Mexico State is likely waiting for Benson to give it a mercy call -- currently, if my math is correct, the SBC is at 10 football, 12 all-sports members. Boise State is publicly shopping for a new home and will be stating its case to the Big West again for its non-football sports. Denver may also have to hope Benson allows the Pioneers to come back to the Sun Belt -- or else it's either pray-for-the-WCC time, or hope-the-Summit-League-is-interested time.
Seattle is also in a tough spot -- it moved back to Division I as an independent last year, the plan all along to join the WAC in 2012. It may find itself in a similar situation to Denver, or might have to consider independence again in 2013 until something (WCC? -- which Gonzaga is rumored to be pushing against) comes its way.
The 2012 WAC will be an interesting thing to cover, seeing the final weeks, games, and moments of a dying conference. Above all, I hope the affected parties all find a suitable home, because conference realignment just wrecked the one they had.
1 comment:
Call me crazy, but I keep expecting the MWC to add a school like a Denver or a Seattle to balance the fact that Hawaii is a football-only member. It just seems...backward to have 10 schools in football and 9 in everything else. Yet I've seen no indication that will happen.
And yes, Sun Belt is at 12 all-sports members and 10 football members (University of Arkansas at Little Rock, my grad school, is the other non-football member). I wouldn't mind seeing it add NMSU and Appalachian State, which wants to move up, but apparently that's not going to happen, according to cbssports.com.
Post a Comment