Big crowd?

Fantastic.

Hard to see why it shouldn't be. They could create a Beer Garden type atmosphere down the first base line. As long as there is some sort of shade structure...

According to their website they do use the deep water channel in West Sac.

Either Hawaii leaves and Slac is added (the only UC/CSU left in the state that would be ready to join the Big West, or Hawaii leaves and that is the end of the addition/subtraction game.

Sports editor at the Davis Enterprise said that he believes it will be rowing. Makes sense as the infrastructure is already there.

Ha. We've lost to half that list at least once...

But what about all the remaining CSU's?

Just browsed the Big West boards and there aren't very many fans who are excited about this. Granted, we can be a pessimistic bunch, but it is hard to see why the conference would do this.

Weren't they in the Big West for about 6 hours before they bailed?

For us?

Enterprise said they think it is women's rowing. Makes sense, very minimal if any facilities need to be built for it.

Also from the release:

Expansion gives the Big West Conference institutions in the following nationally ranked television markets (Designated Market Areas):

No. 2 Los Angeles/Orange County/Inland Empire
No. 20 Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto
No. 28 San Diego
No. 65 Honolulu
No. 124 Santa Barbara/Santa Maria/San Luis Obispo
No. 126 Bakersfield

With the addition of CSU Bakersfield and UC San Diego, the total student enrollment of Big West member institutions will top 375,000, which ranks among the top five conferences in NCAA Division I. The total alumni of the 11 institutions will top 1,675,000. More than 10,000 alumni of the current Big West members live in Kern County, CA (home of CSU Bakersfield) and more than 60,000 alums live in San Diego County.

How many of our games are on TV right now? Great, our student enrollment is over 375,000...what's our student attendance?

Yes, but why would we settle for 11 teams? I think the conference is expecting someone to leave or are planning on adding another member.

Think about this, if the conference were to spit into North/South Divisions similar to what we have in soccer, the breakdowns would look something like this:

North:
UC Davis
Hawaii
Cal Poly
UCSB
Bako

South:
Northridge
Long Beach
Fullerton
UC Irvine
UC Riverside
UCSD

Bako would be the North/South split and Hawaii would be in the North. Hawaii's been called a lot of things but a northern state isn't one of them!

Our nearest conference foe is Cal Poly and they are three hours away. Conversely if Fullerton had to go to Northridge it could also be three hours away depending on traffic. Maybe they would fly from John Wayne to Burbank... :-$

Quote from the Commissioner:

“The addition of these two outstanding universities will further strengthen the Big West’s position as the preeminent NCAA Division I public university conference for the states of California and Hawai‘i,” said Farrell. “The 2018-19 academic year marks the 50th anniversary of the Big West Conference and this membership development positions the conference to continue growing and thriving for the next 50 years.”

Preeminent DI public university conference for California and Hawaii?

http://www.bigwest.org//story.asp?story_id=20127

The only conference that might think about taking us is the WAC...ironic isn't it?

Or, add Utah Valley and Southern Utah. That way Southern Utah has a travel partner and in-state "rival" and doesn't leave them on an island like Hawaii.

Agree with everything you said. Here's what I don't get...we currently have 9 teams. Why add two unless you're expecting one (Hawaii is the obvious choice) to leave?

I feel the goal was to expand the foot print of the conference, why not New Mexico State, Seattle or Utah Valley? Makes ZERO sense to me.