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WAC/A-Sun
Jun 24, 2022 11:08:49 GMT -6
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Post by acumedic on Jun 24, 2022 11:08:49 GMT -6
What has the world come to when we are actually fighting over who gets UIW?! Howdy, I know this statement may appear appropriate on the surface, because UIW is not a prize. However, there is another element to look at from the alumni engagement viewpoint -- San Antonio is a base of a large number of ACU alumni and the WAC schools to the west of ACU are simply not areas of alumni concentration. There will never be an alumni event held in Cedar City or St George, Utah. Phoenix area probably has enough alumni to do something, but GCU does not play football and that is typically the draw for alumni. ACU has a decent turnout for the conference BB tourney in Las Vegas, but at least 95% of people who come to the alumni event there are from Texas or are related to players. On the other hand, ACU had over 1,200 people attend a alumni football pre-game event in San Antonio. Having UIW in the WAC would have given ACU another city where they could get some alumni participation. I suppose we could always schedule OOC games against UIW. To me that’s a better option that adding one of the worst D1 basketball teams to our promising mid major league.
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Post by acutrackfan on Jun 24, 2022 13:09:26 GMT -6
Scheduling OOC football games in San Antonio would mean getting UIW to fork over $80,000 to $100,000 to ACU to come to their place in football. I just don't see that happening. OOC games must be money games for ACU and $100,000 is not enough money.
In the past 12 months, the SLC has convinced McNeese to stay in the fold after it was a virtual lock they were moving to the WAC. The SLC has convinced Lamar to return to the fold after the 2022-23 season. They have now convinced UIW to stay with them after an announced move to the WAC -- a move that will blow up the conference schedules for all their fall sports -- sports that start competing in 2 months! The SLC must have promised something to UIW and San Antonio about hosting events, even though they sold the conference's soul to Lake Charles to keep McNeese in the fold less than a year ago. TAMU-Commerce will join the SLC this coming fall. Not a banner school, but actually a rather competitive D-2 school that should do fairly well in the SLC during their transition years.
In the same period, the WAC has been able to get 1 non-football playing school, UTA, to join the conference. That is a good add as far as I see, but it will have no impact on the WAC football AQ conundrum at all. The WAC has chased off what is the worst-budgeted school in D-1, Chicago State -- pretty sad that one of the greatest accomplishments for the conference this year was to force a school out of the conference without incurring a lawsuit or some kind of cash payout to the school. Then, 2 WAC schools are pulled away by the allure of FBS. It just looks like the WAC is not winning many battles today, which may be attributable to a virtual complete turnover in the conference office. But, the SLC has had the same turnover and the new commissioner has had a string of wins since coming on-board.
It appears that the WAC needs some bold moves and while they may well be in the works, it seems to leave ACU is a pretty lousy situation if something big and bold doesn't happen soon.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jun 24, 2022 13:47:37 GMT -6
Looks like we have several holes in our schedules for fall sports. I wonder if UIW will be obliged to pay cancellation fees? The Cardinals are expected to play a full Southland schedule, including football, this season. UIW is the defending SLC football champs, claiming the program’s first title last fall with a 7-1 record. It’s only loss was in Lake Charles to McNeese State. Grant had previously said the league had plans in place if the Cardinals decided to stay. “We are working on finalizing those right now,” Grant said. “We want to make the least amount of changes necessary for our teams, players and fans.” www.americanpress.com/2022/06/24...onference/
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Post by Cap'n Cattitude on Jun 24, 2022 15:17:27 GMT -6
Seems to me that a cash poor school like UIW, with bad facilities and all their eggs in the football basket would like the SLC better. Lower travel costs, East TX State joining the conference. As good as their FB team has been, they got nothing else. So West Coast road trips for basketball, etc are’t attractive, me thinks.
So let them go. TF makes the best case for keeping them but that’s only on our side.
Meanwhile, the WAC/ASun football alliance will be very competitive and appears to be our immediate future.
A bigger blow would be if SFA skulks back now that they are in the middle of the SLC footprint.
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Post by bucfan on Jun 24, 2022 15:45:05 GMT -6
Looks to me like the Southland is placing all bets on football while the WAC seems to be more competitive in a broad range of sports. I still think the move to the WAC was a good thing for ACU but WAC leadership needs to start putting in some work.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jun 24, 2022 15:51:17 GMT -6
Looks to me like the Southland is placing all bets on football while the WAC seems to be more competitive in a broad range of sports. I still think the move to the WAC was a good thing for ACU but WAC leadership needs to start putting in some work. Got any ideas about where the WAC leadership should start looking? They have pretty much exhausted the obvious choices- no one other than Southern Utah is remotely interested snd logical D2 options like West Texas believe it’s in their best interest to remain where they are.
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Post by Outsider on Jun 24, 2022 16:10:41 GMT -6
Looks to me like the Southland is placing all bets on football while the WAC seems to be more competitive in a broad range of sports. I still think the move to the WAC was a good thing for ACU but WAC leadership needs to start putting in some work. Got any ideas about where the WAC leadership should start looking? They have pretty much exhausted the obvious choices- no one other than Southern Utah is remotely interested and logical D2 options like West Texas believe it’s in their best interest to remain where they are. It may be a matter of "what" as it is "where" for the WAC leadership. What does the WAC have to offer? I agree that it is a better over-all conference than the SLC and others, but other schools need to be able to feel that it is, and that it will benefit them more. For me, more Texas schools aren't necessarily the answer, but other quality schools to the West of us have pretty much decided to stay put and it will take creativity to change that. How much do we, the current member schools, have a responsibility in that? The WAC-ASUN alliance is fine for now, but the WAC needs to do more for the bigger picture and longer term. I am not convinced that bringing in DII schools is the answer, so it ups the stakes to bring in quality DI/FCS programs.
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Post by bogeyman on Jun 24, 2022 16:22:05 GMT -6
Has anyone considered that ACU made a rash and very poor decision to join the WAC. Maybe we were duped by Sam Houston (didn't everyone know they were looking to move up?) and Lamar (cash poor who couldn't sustain the huge new expenses) and if this current alignment keeps shifting by SFA (who now has lost their #1 rival--where do they stand for the future?). Our costs for all sports had to skyrocket just so we could "maybe get into a 2-bid basketball" league. Maybe it is us who needs to be looking for a new conference of schools closer to us geographically and where we have alumni living who can enjoy our successes. Personally, playing games in Utah, Nevada and California doesn't do it for me.
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Post by Outsider on Jun 24, 2022 16:27:03 GMT -6
Has anyone considered that ACU made a rash and very poor decision to join the WAC. Maybe we were duped by Sam Houston (didn't everyone know they were looking to move up?) and Lamar (cash poor who couldn't sustain the huge new expenses) and if this current alignment keeps shifting by SFA (who now has lost their #1 rival--where do they stand for the future?). Our costs for all sports had to skyrocket just so we could "maybe get into a 2-bid basketball" league. Maybe it is us who needs to be looking for a new conference of schools closer to us geographically and where we have alumni living who can enjoy our successes. Personally, playing games in Utah, Nevada and California doesn't do it for me. No, the SLC was not a good fit for us over-all. The WAC is still a better fit athletically and with schools that have better visions like us. I just feel the WAC leadership needs to step up. I think the WAC can do better than UIW, but they need to put on their big boy shoes and do it.
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Post by acutrackfan on Jun 24, 2022 16:52:36 GMT -6
Yep, it looks like we will see holes in the schedules. For soccer or volleyball, I would imagine they might just leave a hole in the schedule. I had the great idea of going to the UIW volleyball game on that Saturday and the WAC conference tourney is 5 days later in Edinburg -- I guess that plan goes by the wayside! Football will be tough -- almost certainly, UIW will not play ACU. Maybe ACU goes with a 10-game schedule this year. Maybe ACU can find somewhere to go in October - maybe an ASUN school can be plugged in.
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Post by rc on Jun 24, 2022 16:56:37 GMT -6
This is a time of challenge for universities in many ways so athletic conferences figure into this larger equation. I have always yearned for ACU to be in a conference grouping of universities that aspire to many of the same goals as we aspire to. The WAC was a step up but it is a collection of many very different versions of what is considered a university. We have commuter schools, on-line schools, academic schools, and religious schools and combinations of these things and more. I don't think there is a conferences that really fits us perfectly. So for now, the WAC is at least regarded as a higher level academic conference than the Southland.
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Post by acutrackfan on Jun 24, 2022 17:34:15 GMT -6
Looks to me like the Southland is placing all bets on football while the WAC seems to be more competitive in a broad range of sports. I still think the move to the WAC was a good thing for ACU but WAC leadership needs to start putting in some work. Got any ideas about where the WAC leadership should start looking? They have pretty much exhausted the obvious choices- no one other than Southern Utah is remotely interested snd logical D2 options like West Texas believe it’s in their best interest to remain where they are. ACU has always been in a bad place geographically. The east coast is full of liberal arts, faith-based schools at the D-1 level. That is why you find the outliers in the south/southwest grappling with where they need to be when it comes to conferences -- Vanderbilt is largely overmatched in almost every sport in the SEC; for many years both Baylor and TCU were bottom-feeders in many sports (how things have changed for the Bears); SMU floats around looking for a place to land every few years; and Rice is different that all the above because of their massive endowment and their willingness to get kicked around in most sports by most conference foes (kind of a Vandy for G-5 conferences). I guess my feeling is that in every recent case, the SLC (which I do believe is one of the lowest D-1 conferences in many sports) is an inferior conference academically and athletically to the WAC. I just am befuddled when every single time there is a tug-of-war between the 2 conferences the SLC has won that tug-of-war three times. I have to think that is due to the new SLC leadership being more active.
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Post by bucfan on Jun 24, 2022 17:50:04 GMT -6
Yep, it looks like we will see holes in the schedules. For soccer or volleyball, I would imagine they might just leave a hole in the schedule. I had the great idea of going to the UIW volleyball game on that Saturday and the WAC conference tourney is 5 days later in Edinburg -- I guess that plan goes by the wayside! Football will be tough -- almost certainly, UIW will not play ACU. Maybe ACU goes with a 10-game schedule this year. Maybe ACU can find somewhere to go in October - maybe an ASUN school can be plugged in. Ave Maria and Arizona Christian waiting breathlessly for our call...
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jun 24, 2022 19:12:05 GMT -6
Yep, it looks like we will see holes in the schedules. For soccer or volleyball, I would imagine they might just leave a hole in the schedule. I had the great idea of going to the UIW volleyball game on that Saturday and the WAC conference tourney is 5 days later in Edinburg -- I guess that plan goes by the wayside! Football will be tough -- almost certainly, UIW will not play ACU. Maybe ACU goes with a 10-game schedule this year. Maybe ACU can find somewhere to go in October - maybe an ASUN school can be plugged in. Ave Maria and Arizona Christian waiting breathlessly for our call... Shut your mouth 😂
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WAC/A-Sun
Jun 25, 2022 10:10:28 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by purplecat on Jun 25, 2022 10:10:28 GMT -6
Any chance the WAC loses a basketball school like GCU to the WCC since BYU is leaving ?
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