utter nonsense, don't waste your time

Delusional.

I think there is some concern that the new commissioner thinks the conference is too big and, hence, that the futures of the two football-only schools isn’t set in stone. WAC would be a disaster. Not sure what other option exists (I still say the MWC doesn’t want more teams)

It just seems like every time Sac gets a new coach or AD we get the same old “this will finally awaken the sleeping Sac giant” story all over again. Well, hope does spring eternal, but as was said, this is utter nonsense. It is somewhat irritating that they try and get Hawk into supporting this very dubious theory “because he just wanted to come home” to the Sac area; Taylor too. FBS to follow. What are these guys smoking?

The WAC has devolved into an MPSF with a pedigree, simply an affiliation of teams into an ersatz league where no other conference exists. Teams change with the sanctioned sports.

The originator of the babble in this thread appears to be a UND fan...a team that has left the Big Sky, for understandable reasons of geography and the possibility of reuniting with former D-II NCC foes like the other Dakota schools.

There are certainly other reasons that Hawk and Taylor could "come home," keeping in mind that Taylor is returning to Sacramento, but not to his collegiate alma mater. Hawk's career took off and then hit some bumps in Colorado and Montreal...he was out of coaching for awhile. Taylor was by many accounts on a merry-go-round for offensive coordinators as Wittingham apparently discards O.C.s like old socks. It gave Taylor a chance to reunite with many associates from Folsom High.....the list goes on.

None of the California FCS schools really have the facilities or budgets to currently make the jump to FBS level football.

I remember when Slack made the move to D-1 there was talk of leaving UCD in the rear view mirror, but the Ags took the time to do it right. Look who made it to the football play-offs first.

Not too concerned about what a UND fan tosses out there about a league that his favorite team has chosen to leave.

I remember some wish/prediction drivel on one of the other boards too about Big Sky breaking up, either regionally in FCS or splitting up FCS/BCS. The gist was EWU and Montana being pissed about only playing every other year, with this somehow being the California teams’ fault. Also speculation about Central Washington wanting to move up with Humboldt quitting football.

I believe there was a thread here about the possibility of the WAC FCS conference, possibly during the playoff bye week if I remember correctly.

It's Idaho's fault, if anybody's. Each team only gets up to two protected rivalries as I understand it. I'm not sure how many Big Sky schools other than the California teams took advantage of that though before Idaho became Montana's second. Even though the California teams probably screwed up the conference schedules more than most, it's still a stretch.

One of the first interviews with the new commissioner addresses the size of the league and how some members are upset about the number of teams and the footprint. From what I hear from folks I’m the department, we’re ( including poly) seen as the outsiders by the rest of the long standing members. We have to consider options just in case; the WAC would be a step down especially if other sports had to go.

http://406mtsports.com/college/big-sky-conference/meet-the-commish-new-big-sky-conference-chief-tom-wistrcill/article_ef377828-3549-5acc-aff3-88c07a6873e8.html

Please stop this nonsense thread

Talk about us moving up to the FBS level is premature at this point but the article that Mike referenced makes me wonder what just might be coming down the pike from the Big Sky in the future if there are schools who are unhappy with the size of the conference and the inclusion UCD and Poly in football. It's a red flag warning when the new Big Sky Commissioner says that a 13 team conference is bloated and too big and there are schools very unhappy with the size of the conference. Consequently, I think that we would be wise to be exploring our options for football conference affiliation just in the case we asked to leave or get the boot so we don't get hung out to dry.

He didn't say bloated, that was the writer. The commissioner seemed more concerned with the odd number than the size

You're correct, he didn't say bloated. He did say that there were "people who were disgruntled" with the conference numbers and that he thought that an even number is much easier to work with. At any rate, if some conference members are "disgruntled," it doesn't make me feel like Davis and Poly are exactly welcome...not sure if that portends anything for us in the future...???

Maybe our phoenix year adds to their angst. But having CA on the schedule is good for them for both recruiting, and recruits (families get to see them).

Let’s slow down on the WAC FBS talk - here’s a link to the thread I referenced, with an FCS conference being the discussion point: http://www.aggiesportstalk.com/discussion/805/wac-exploring-fcs-football/p1

Like I mentioned in that thread, any WAC FCS conference would seem to still be reliant on the Big Sky teams for OOC scheduling from a geographical perspective given the lack of FCS teams in the West. Given that and the step down in conference foes, this seems like it would be a definitive step down for Aggie Football.

If you look at rosters, Davis/Poly/Sac are almost 100% California recruits. Everyone else in the conference casts a larger net. They all go shopping in California, especially Southern California, for playmakers. It’s good for their recruiting if the California teams are bad but maybe not so for all of them if we’re good. Unless you really want some quiet time with nature (nothing wrong with that by the way), why would you go from LA to someplace cold with more coyotes than people and no liquor on sundays if there were better teams closer by? I’m sure there are some waiting to see if UCD was a one hit wonder or the real deal. And I bet the love affair with Sac comes to a close of they ever start consistently winning.

The large number of teams means you can’t play every one in football ( co-champs), and odd numbers keep you from making two divisions. Odd number is a bigger problem in basketball because it creates a bye every night. Getting rid of the football only schools helps a little with the numbers, not at all with the oddness.

Thank goodness they allowed us as football-only back in 2010, else no telling where our football program would be. Might not exist.

Radical thought here. Add San Diego as another associate member? UCD Poly Slack USD SUU Weber NAU in the South; EWU UM MSU PSU UNC ISU Idaho in the North. Just spitballing, but if they want an even number, that’s the easiest way. USD is predominantly in the WCC for the remainder.

I'm sure USD would be tickled to go 5-6 every year and change their whole schol....er, non-scholarship status

Absolutely... San Diego has a pretty cozy situation dominating the non-scholarship conference and getting an auto-bid every season.

I mean sure San Diego doesn't have a whole lot of fans really, but you are playing in a beautiful beach city in California. That has to mean something for recruits in a non-schollie league.

If they kick us and Poly out then we should lure Sac State to the Big West. If us and CP were kicked out, they'd still want one California school or they'd lose their leverage with the Big West. I have always wondered if the Big West hasn't invited Sac because of CP/UCD in football.

I don’t think Sac wants to be in the same conference with Davis. They were clear on that when they left the far western conference. They felt they had to get away and their AD said that at the time. For a while when they had scholarships and Davis didn’t they could compete but now they’ve lost that advantage. If they follow us somewhere they will continue to suffer by comparison.

The Big West is adding Bakersfield and UC-San Diego to scheduleing in 2020, CSB as a full member, UCSD as a full member in 2024. that brings the conference up to 11. That's a pretty large number without anyone else.

River, I think Sac would love to be in the BW now. I don’t care about the past that much. Sacs travel budget in the BSky must be enormous, plus they are a Cali school and can relate to the BW. I have no idea if Sac has ever applied for BW membership and I would think that info would be a tightly held secret if they did and were denied. It is rather amazing if Backo applied and got in over Sac. Sac is much the better institution academically and athletically. But BW seems to apply a equality rule for entry: UC and CSU equal entry only. If so, there’s are no more UCs left, so the train has left the station for Sac to get into the BW IMHO.

Slac St has horrible facilities for bb. The BW wants peace between the UC and Cal St schools so one can't overvote the other. Sac St would have given UCDavis a travel partner, but soon the BW will be a Southern California league with one Hawaii trip. Sux St is supposedly building a new arena now, but the BW isn't interested.

Wow Sioux. You have taken on a great venture here. Very exciting; but, you have to realize what we have to deal with here. Our Acedemic Senate basically controls our ICA endeavors, including all academic budgets. The AS likes to debate funding issues like fighting global warming, infectious diseases, economic disparities, poverty, international relations, etc., and you think they will take on a move to FBS? Siouxfan you are smoking too much of that great weed from the North; but i do wish you well on your very competent posts. Just that they won’t work too well here, sorry.

Merced?