UVU to the Big West?

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UVU to the Big West?

Post by Tetonkatest » January 9th, 2025, 10:37 am

https://www.ksl.com/article/51212159/co ... hs-borders

The Big West is losing 2 schools -- Hawaii and UC Davis.

That leaves them with 9 schools. UVU has emerged as a potentional addition to get back to 10 schools.


So conference expansion likely isn't done, and multiple sources indicated to KSL.com that Utah Valley is one school to monitor as the dominoes shift out west.

The Wolverines' lack of a football program, a student population with more than 46,000 students (including around 30,000 on-campus students) and competitive programs in Olympic sports such as women's volleyball, men's and women's soccer, and cross country in a growing market make them an especially attractive candidate for the Big West, according to one source.

The Big West is made up entirely of public schools in California, while the West Coast Conference is strictly a private-school league, but has been open to adding public schools in recent years.

Another source believes that the Big West is less interested in adding a school with football, either at the FCS or FBS level. Hawaii recently announced its intentions to leave the league where most of its sports played to sign on as a full-time member of the Mountain West, where the Rainbow Warriors have played as a football-affiliate since 2012.
Last edited by Tetonkatest on January 9th, 2025, 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.



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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by Yossarian » January 9th, 2025, 10:55 am

UVU has to be the largest school in the state, by enrollment, right? 46,000 total and 30,000 on- campus students is huge. That place has really taken off. I can remember when it was Utah Technical College offering certificates in cosmetology, diesel mechanics, etc., and some associates degrees in business fields. It later became Utah Valley (Comedy) Community College, then Utah Valley State College, and now it's current UVU.


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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by ViAggie » January 9th, 2025, 12:18 pm

Better than the WAC. If SUU and Utah Tech were smart, they would try and jump on the Big West bandwagon as well and then beg the Big Sky for some sort of FB only or scheduling alliance with them. The WAC is dead.
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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by NowhereLandAggie » January 9th, 2025, 12:24 pm

ViAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 12:18 pm
Better than the WAC. If SUU was smart they'd try and jump on that boat as well and beg the Big Sky for a FB only scheduling agreement or something.
SUU isn't in WAC football anymore. They are in the United Athletic Conference. It was a merger for the WAC and Atlantic Sun for football. The WAC is where their basketball is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_At ... Conference



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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by Tetonkatest » January 9th, 2025, 1:10 pm

Yossarian wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 10:55 am
UVU has to be the largest school in the state, by enrollment, right? 46,000 total and 30,000 on- campus students is huge. That place has really taken off. I can remember when it was Utah Technical College offering certificates in cosmetology, diesel mechanics, etc., and some associates degrees in business fields. It later became Utah Valley (Comedy) Community College, then Utah Valley State College, and now it's current UVU.
Given UVU's huge enrollment, they have the potential to have a very good basketball team if they get into a decent conference.

Also I've never been to it in person, but their basketball arena looks decent. Looks better than a few additions to the MWC.

@ProvoAggie , any thoughts on this?



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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by Yossarian » January 9th, 2025, 1:17 pm

Tetonkatest wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:10 pm
Yossarian wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 10:55 am
UVU has to be the largest school in the state, by enrollment, right? 46,000 total and 30,000 on- campus students is huge. That place has really taken off. I can remember when it was Utah Technical College offering certificates in cosmetology, diesel mechanics, etc., and some associates degrees in business fields. It later became Utah Valley (Comedy) Community College, then Utah Valley State College, and now it's current UVU.
Given UVU's huge enrollment, they have the potential to have a very good basketball team if they get into a decent conference.

Also I've never been to it in person, but their basketball arena looks decent. Looks better than a few additions to the MWC.

@ProvoAggie , any thoughts on this?
The basketball arena is decent because it is fairly new and modern. It has some strange sight lines and is not set up well for large crowds (ticketing, ingress, egress limitations). It appears it was built as amulti-purpose facility rather than a basketball- only arena. Limited seating capacity.
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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by Tetonkatest » January 9th, 2025, 1:33 pm

Yossarian wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:17 pm
Tetonkatest wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:10 pm
Yossarian wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 10:55 am
UVU has to be the largest school in the state, by enrollment, right? 46,000 total and 30,000 on- campus students is huge. That place has really taken off. I can remember when it was Utah Technical College offering certificates in cosmetology, diesel mechanics, etc., and some associates degrees in business fields. It later became Utah Valley (Comedy) Community College, then Utah Valley State College, and now it's current UVU.
Given UVU's huge enrollment, they have the potential to have a very good basketball team if they get into a decent conference.

Also I've never been to it in person, but their basketball arena looks decent. Looks better than a few additions to the MWC.

@ProvoAggie , any thoughts on this?
The basketball arena is decent because it is fairly new and modern. It has some strange sight lines and is not set up well for large crowds (ticketing, ingress, egress limitations). It appears it was built as amulti-purpose facility rather than a basketball- only arena. Limited seating capacity.
Looks like it seats 8,500.

The sight lines behind the basket do look odd -- like a hockey venue.

Image


But much better than say, San Jose State's venue in the MWC, which holds only 5,000

Image



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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by cval » January 9th, 2025, 2:52 pm

When I was a YSA Bishop, the Utah County kids that came to USU called it Utah Valley High. They felt like they were still at their old high school with the same kids that were there before.

Lots of students, but not really a university experience.



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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by ViAggie » January 9th, 2025, 3:31 pm

Tetonkatest wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:33 pm
Yossarian wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:17 pm
Tetonkatest wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:10 pm
Yossarian wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 10:55 am
UVU has to be the largest school in the state, by enrollment, right? 46,000 total and 30,000 on- campus students is huge. That place has really taken off. I can remember when it was Utah Technical College offering certificates in cosmetology, diesel mechanics, etc., and some associates degrees in business fields. It later became Utah Valley (Comedy) Community College, then Utah Valley State College, and now it's current UVU.
Given UVU's huge enrollment, they have the potential to have a very good basketball team if they get into a decent conference.

Also I've never been to it in person, but their basketball arena looks decent. Looks better than a few additions to the MWC.

@ProvoAggie , any thoughts on this?
The basketball arena is decent because it is fairly new and modern. It has some strange sight lines and is not set up well for large crowds (ticketing, ingress, egress limitations). It appears it was built as amulti-purpose facility rather than a basketball- only arena. Limited seating capacity.
Looks like it seats 8,500.

The sight lines behind the basket do look odd -- like a hockey venue.

Image


But much better than say, San Jose State's venue in the MWC, which holds only 5,000

Image
I have lots of found memories of UVU's arena... I saw Tool and Foo Fighters there... I think 311 once as well. :lol:
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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by Yossarian » January 9th, 2025, 4:13 pm

ViAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 3:31 pm
Tetonkatest wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:33 pm
Yossarian wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:17 pm
Tetonkatest wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:10 pm
Yossarian wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 10:55 am
UVU has to be the largest school in the state, by enrollment, right? 46,000 total and 30,000 on- campus students is huge. That place has really taken off. I can remember when it was Utah Technical College offering certificates in cosmetology, diesel mechanics, etc., and some associates degrees in business fields. It later became Utah Valley (Comedy) Community College, then Utah Valley State College, and now it's current UVU.
Given UVU's huge enrollment, they have the potential to have a very good basketball team if they get into a decent conference.

Also I've never been to it in person, but their basketball arena looks decent. Looks better than a few additions to the MWC.

@ProvoAggie , any thoughts on this?
The basketball arena is decent because it is fairly new and modern. It has some strange sight lines and is not set up well for large crowds (ticketing, ingress, egress limitations). It appears it was built as amulti-purpose facility rather than a basketball- only arena. Limited seating capacity.
Looks like it seats 8,500.

The sight lines behind the basket do look odd -- like a hockey venue.

Image


But much better than say, San Jose State's venue in the MWC, which holds only 5,000

Image
I have lots of found memories of UVU's arena... I saw Tool and Foo Fighters there... I think 311 once as well. :lol:
How is Tool as a live band? They are a great band with a lot of production effort in their music. They just seem like the studio versions of their music would be much better than the live performances because it would be difficult to capture all the nuances live. There is so much going on with their music and sound. I have not seen them live.


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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by StanfordAggie » January 9th, 2025, 4:36 pm

I find it very difficult to believe that adding UVU would move the TV dial enough to justify forcing all Big West schools to travel to Utah. Are there no other California schools that they could add?



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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by SoJo_Aggie » January 9th, 2025, 4:38 pm

Tetonkatest wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:33 pm
Yossarian wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:17 pm
Tetonkatest wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 1:10 pm
Yossarian wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 10:55 am
UVU has to be the largest school in the state, by enrollment, right? 46,000 total and 30,000 on- campus students is huge. That place has really taken off. I can remember when it was Utah Technical College offering certificates in cosmetology, diesel mechanics, etc., and some associates degrees in business fields. It later became Utah Valley (Comedy) Community College, then Utah Valley State College, and now it's current UVU.
Given UVU's huge enrollment, they have the potential to have a very good basketball team if they get into a decent conference.

Also I've never been to it in person, but their basketball arena looks decent. Looks better than a few additions to the MWC.

@ProvoAggie , any thoughts on this?
The basketball arena is decent because it is fairly new and modern. It has some strange sight lines and is not set up well for large crowds (ticketing, ingress, egress limitations). It appears it was built as amulti-purpose facility rather than a basketball- only arena. Limited seating capacity.
Looks like it seats 8,500.

The sight lines behind the basket do look odd -- like a hockey venue.

Image


But much better than say, San Jose State's venue in the MWC, which holds only 5,000

Image
To be fair SJSU's stadium capacity is about 4,600 more than average attendance


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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by Tetonkatest » January 9th, 2025, 4:47 pm

StanfordAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 4:36 pm
I find it very difficult to believe that adding UVU would move the TV dial enough to justify forcing all Big West schools to travel to Utah. Are there no other California schools that they could add?
Are flights from California to Utah all that expensive anymore?

I assume a flight from So Cal to somewhere in Nor Cal probably costs about the same as flying to SLC.

They also have that airport in Provo, but I have never seen it, and have no idea if they do commercial flights to California out of that.
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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by ag4fr » January 9th, 2025, 5:18 pm

I can personally testify to the fact that the UVU arena might be one of the most uncomfortable places in the world to spend all dadgum day on a Saturday. Many a time that was our family's routine. Daughter#2 was a competitive dancer the first couple of years in high school. My butt still hurts 10 years later.

That said, there are plenty of WAC, and even some MWC arenas that are not really much better. I know sometimes the seating feels cramped in the Spectrum but we truly are fortunate to have had that venue, the crowd and our amazing Hurd student section for all of these years.



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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by aggies22 » January 9th, 2025, 6:30 pm

ag4fr wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 5:18 pm
I can personally testify to the fact that the UVU arena might be one of the most uncomfortable places in the world to spend all dadgum day on a Saturday. Many a time that was our family's routine. Daughter#2 was a competitive dancer the first couple of years in high school. My butt still hurts 10 years later.

That said, there are plenty of WAC, and even some MWC arenas that are not really much better. I know sometimes the seating feels cramped in the Spectrum but we truly are fortunate to have had that venue, the crowd and our amazing Hurd student section for all of these years.
We've sat through two straight days of state wrestling there.



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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by dogie » January 9th, 2025, 8:13 pm

StanfordAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 4:36 pm
I find it very difficult to believe that adding UVU would move the TV dial enough to justify forcing all Big West schools to travel to Utah. Are there no other California schools that they could add?
These conferences are at the bottom of the western barrel. The Big West could look at Cal Baptist of the WAC. After that, the three Utah schools of, UVU, UTU and SUU are the only realistic options. They aren’t getting anyone from the Big Sky, WCC or Summit (Denver).

The WAC is probably not going to survive. Grand Canyon and Seattle are already on the way out. If UVU leaves, the WAC is down to UTU, SUU, Cal Baptist, UT-Arlington, Tarleton State, and Abilene Christian. That’s about as bad as it gets.

If you’re SUU and UTU, you’ll need to market yourself as a package deal to the Summit. That might work.

The voluntary move of SUU from the Big Sky to the WAC keeps getting worse, and has to be the most disastrous conference move of all time.
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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by trevordude » January 9th, 2025, 9:48 pm

dogie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 8:13 pm
StanfordAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 4:36 pm
I find it very difficult to believe that adding UVU would move the TV dial enough to justify forcing all Big West schools to travel to Utah. Are there no other California schools that they could add?
These conferences are at the bottom of the western barrel. The Big West could look at Cal Baptist of the WAC. After that, the three Utah schools of, UVU, UTU and SUU are the only realistic options. They aren’t getting anyone from the Big Sky, WCC or Summit (Denver).

The WAC is probably not going to survive. Grand Canyon and Seattle are already on the way out. If UVU leaves, the WAC is down to UTU, SUU, Cal Baptist, UT-Arlington, Tarleton State, and Abilene Christian. That’s about as bad as it gets.

If you’re SUU and UTU, you’ll need to market yourself as a package deal to the Summit. That might work.

The voluntary move of SUU from the Big Sky to the WAC keeps getting worse, and has to be the most disastrous conference move of all time.
That terrible decision made by SUU President longtime Cache Valley resident and USU alum Scott Wyatt.

And athletic director Debbie Corum, who retired pretty soon after the announcement to move back to the South.
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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by StanfordAggie » January 9th, 2025, 10:30 pm

Tetonkatest wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 4:47 pm
StanfordAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 4:36 pm
I find it very difficult to believe that adding UVU would move the TV dial enough to justify forcing all Big West schools to travel to Utah. Are there no other California schools that they could add?
Are flights from California to Utah all that expensive anymore?

I assume a flight from So Cal to somewhere in Nor Cal probably costs about the same as flying to SLC.

They also have that airport in Provo, but I have never seen it, and have no idea if they do commercial flights to California out of that.
My understanding is that the Big West schools currently bus to all of their non-Hawaii away games. There's no way that flying is cheaper than that.



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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by ProvoAggie » January 9th, 2025, 10:57 pm

StanfordAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 4:36 pm
I find it very difficult to believe that adding UVU would move the TV dial enough to justify forcing all Big West schools to travel to Utah. Are there no other California schools that they could add?
It's not always about TV, sometimes it's about survival. The Big West just lost a couple of teams and the WAC isn't all that stable. You have to imagine that the WAC was going to look to the Big West as a possibility for expansion and the Big West likely needs to strike first for some stability.
Tetonkatest wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 4:47 pm
Are flights from California to Utah all that expensive anymore?

I assume a flight from So Cal to somewhere in Nor Cal probably costs about the same as flying to SLC.

They also have that airport in Provo, but I have never seen it, and have no idea if they do commercial flights to California out of that.
There are commercial flights from Provo to both Northern and Southern California. They aren't everyday but they are often times pretty cheap. My dad and I flew to the USU Basketball game at San Francisco from Provo last year for $79 each round trip.
ag4fr wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 5:18 pm
I can personally testify to the fact that the UVU arena might be one of the most uncomfortable places in the world to spend all dadgum day on a Saturday. Many a time that was our family's routine. Daughter#2 was a competitive dancer the first couple of years in high school. My butt still hurts 10 years later.

That said, there are plenty of WAC, and even some MWC arenas that are not really much better. I know sometimes the seating feels cramped in the Spectrum but we truly are fortunate to have had that venue, the crowd and our amazing Hurd student section for all of these years.
UVU's arena was really rough for a long time. There were about 5 rows of seats directly below the concourse where the chairs were mounted into the concrete and they were fine. All of the seats above the concourse and also below those 5 rows were pull out chair seats to accommodate other events and the chairs leaned forward in a weird way. I always did everything I could to sit in the concrete mounted ones. Sometime in the last 2 or 3 years they replaced all of the seats and as of now the problem appears to be resolved....hopefully they don't get worse over time. It's not the greatest arena ever but it's definitely better than a couple of MW teams (SJSU, Air Force), most of the WCC and likely most of the Big West.

As far as UVU's potential, I actually think they have some things going for them. With NIL, supporting basketball while you also have a football team can be really hard. UVU has a large alumni base and they're starting to get a lot more support. If they can even get to 25% of what USU is paying players in NIL then overall they'll have more allocated to hoops than someone like USU does. That's why some fans have said that USU should consider going all in on hoops because football has such a large roster and it's hard to compete. When I was at UVU it was mostly a commuter school with very little student support. When Ronnie Price's jersey was retired they had free admission, free hot dogs, and free drinks and couldn't fill the lower bowl. In the years since the school has moved on a bit from that reputation and has a large percentage of students living on campus. There is a lot better fan support and they actually have a decent student section now. I enjoy going to a game or 2 each year there and it's been fun to see the changes over time.
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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by tovli » January 9th, 2025, 11:20 pm

ProvoAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 10:57 pm
As far as UVU's potential, I actually think they have some things going for them. With NIL, supporting basketball while you also have a football team can be really hard. UVU has a large alumni base and they're starting to get a lot more support. If they can even get to 25% of what USU is paying players in NIL then overall they'll have more allocated to hoops than someone like USU does.
The problem UVU has is that a large majority of their alumni are byu fans. I’ve met a few Wolverine diehards though and they have my utmost respect
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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by ProvoAggie » January 9th, 2025, 11:26 pm

tovli wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 11:20 pm
ProvoAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 10:57 pm
As far as UVU's potential, I actually think they have some things going for them. With NIL, supporting basketball while you also have a football team can be really hard. UVU has a large alumni base and they're starting to get a lot more support. If they can even get to 25% of what USU is paying players in NIL then overall they'll have more allocated to hoops than someone like USU does.
The problem UVU has is that a large majority of their alumni are byu fans. I’ve met a few Wolverine diehards though and they have my utmost respect
It's definitely a problem that they have but the tides are shifting slowly. It's hard to switch away from cheering for the team you've cheered for your whole life. I was raised an Aggie fans and always wanted to go to USU...but they didn't offer the program that I wanted so I went to UVU and kept cheering for USU with UVU as a secondary team. BYU has alienated a few of their decent boosters over the past few years which has helped UVU quite a bit. I know a couple of former BYU boosters that got ousted from their good season tickets that they had had for years because there were some new billionaires and some of the money is now going to UVU. It's not a huge amount but as I mentioned before, they don't have to support football. Football pays the bills at a lot of schools but it also takes a TON of money and fan support/donations to operate.
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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by Aggieiester » January 10th, 2025, 9:56 am

dogie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 8:13 pm
StanfordAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 4:36 pm
I find it very difficult to believe that adding UVU would move the TV dial enough to justify forcing all Big West schools to travel to Utah. Are there no other California schools that they could add?
These conferences are at the bottom of the western barrel. The Big West could look at Cal Baptist of the WAC. After that, the three Utah schools of, UVU, UTU and SUU are the only realistic options. They aren’t getting anyone from the Big Sky, WCC or Summit (Denver).

The WAC is probably not going to survive. Grand Canyon and Seattle are already on the way out. If UVU leaves, the WAC is down to UTU, SUU, Cal Baptist, UT-Arlington, Tarleton State, and Abilene Christian. That’s about as bad as it gets.

If you’re SUU and UTU, you’ll need to market yourself as a package deal to the Summit. That might work.

The voluntary move of SUU from the Big Sky to the WAC keeps getting worse, and has to be the most disastrous conference move of all time.
If I recall, the whole move was based on saving on travel (time and money) by being able to fly to Texas instead of to some of the smaller cities in the Big Sky, so they left a very stable conference for a very unstable conference. If the SUU administration talked to anybody involved in college athletic administration, they would have advised against that move.

It's the equivalent decision to if USU was invited to the MWC back when BYU and Utah were still there, staying a couple of years, then moving to the WAC to save a few bucks on travel.
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Re: UVU to the Big West?

Post by OKAggie » January 10th, 2025, 11:19 am

Aggieiester wrote:
January 10th, 2025, 9:56 am
dogie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 8:13 pm
StanfordAggie wrote:
January 9th, 2025, 4:36 pm
I find it very difficult to believe that adding UVU would move the TV dial enough to justify forcing all Big West schools to travel to Utah. Are there no other California schools that they could add?
These conferences are at the bottom of the western barrel. The Big West could look at Cal Baptist of the WAC. After that, the three Utah schools of, UVU, UTU and SUU are the only realistic options. They aren’t getting anyone from the Big Sky, WCC or Summit (Denver).

The WAC is probably not going to survive. Grand Canyon and Seattle are already on the way out. If UVU leaves, the WAC is down to UTU, SUU, Cal Baptist, UT-Arlington, Tarleton State, and Abilene Christian. That’s about as bad as it gets.

If you’re SUU and UTU, you’ll need to market yourself as a package deal to the Summit. That might work.

The voluntary move of SUU from the Big Sky to the WAC keeps getting worse, and has to be the most disastrous conference move of all time.
If I recall, the whole move was based on saving on travel (time and money) by being able to fly to Texas instead of to some of the smaller cities in the Big Sky, so they left a very stable conference for a very unstable conference. If the SUU administration talked to anybody involved in college athletic administration, they would have advised against that move.

It's the equivalent decision to if USU was invited to the MWC back when BYU and Utah were still there, staying a couple of years, then moving to the WAC to save a few bucks on travel.
Orginally I think the expanded WAC after adding the Southland schools had designs on moving up to becoming an FBS conference, which in effect if not by rule allows them to get bigger paydays for their money games. But that died out pretty soon, and the better schools (NMSU, Sam Houston) have already vamoosed.


Nobody here knows anything.

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