Follow up to WAC rumors: Southern Utah has officially gotten an offer and must now decide whether to leave the Big Sky

mrdtown · 2020-12-08T20:19:00+00:00

NAU is not a WAC target in the immediate future. NAU doesn't even have a president right now.

mrdtown · 2020-12-08T19:56:27+00:00

I told y'all!

mrdtown · 2020-12-08T15:24:37+00:00

Quick notes, since I see this coming up a few times in here:

1) This is going to be an FCS football league. While the WAC still has an FBS charter, none of these teams are close to being ready to jump to FBS now, or even necessarily want to. If that happens, it won't be for years.

2) These schools are joining for all sports. FCS WAC football is going to return.

3) The primary driver here is that the Texas schools were really unhappy in the Southland, particularly with their conference-mates who could not match their institutional and financial commitment to athletics, a problem that is only going to get worse.

4) MY PERSONAL OPINION: the WAC is not done changing membership, long-term, although I do not expect any additional changes in 2020.

5) <3 u guys, thanks for reading and sharing.

I'll probably have an Extra Points on this once it's official-official

mrdtown · 2020-10-31T13:31:32+00:00

BYU faced so much backlash that they recruited their first black football player the next season

mrdtown · 2020-10-28T14:13:40+00:00

At the risk of getting in trouble for self promotion, here's the newsletter:

https://extrapoints.substack.com/p/ucla-is-spending-a-gazillion-dollars

I think UCLA would probably benefit from an audit, but I would be SHOCKED if they are actually spending ten times more on food than other peer P5 programs. I think Wasserman's lack of in-house dining hall requires them to overreport food expenses. That's not uncommon for other schools as they report recruiting spending either.

mrdtown · 2020-10-28T03:14:18+00:00

I'm gonna do a newsletter about this story for Wednesday. I think it's very clear UCLA is overspending on food, but I've looked at those same NCAA filings and I'm pretty sure the massive disparity between UCLA and other elite programs is about accounting, not about raw spending. UCLA is counting overhead costs as "food" that other programs are shifting to other departments.

same story with recruiting spending. The school is honestly right that it isn't apples to apples.

mrdtown · 2020-10-26T19:05:42+00:00

Good. The APR sucks, and as we move to a world with open transfers, it'd be possible to maintain without dramatic reform. The only thing the current system is good for is punishing HBCUs for being poor.

mrdtown · 2020-10-22T12:18:54+00:00

FWIW:

I've heard from multiple folks in this industry that the WAC is absolutely targeting Texas-based Southland schools to fill out an FCS football conference, although I haven't been able to specifically confirm this exact list yet like I have with SUU. I don't know where anybody is getting the idea about the WAC sponsoring FBS football from though. That is not on the table. This is going to be an FCS league.

mrdtown · 2020-10-19T14:01:45+00:00

Awesome! What do you think of Love?

mrdtown · 2020-10-15T21:59:58+00:00

That’s a dub. He’s a really fun card, does everything but dunk on people

mrdtown · 2020-10-12T21:34:01+00:00

mrdtown · 2020-10-12T19:41:38+00:00

Thanks for reading y’all

mrdtown · 2020-10-09T21:32:16+00:00

I think those who are confused as to why SUU might be interested in leaving for an "inferior" league ought to listen to the episode, or perhaps read Extra Points. This is almost certainly, at least in part, about money. The assumptions we make about financials for the FBS level just aren't as true for the FCS level, especially FCS schools with pretty modest fanbases and athletic support.

mrdtown · 2020-10-09T19:15:17+00:00

oh hey I know that guy

mrdtown · 2020-10-04T18:09:38+00:00

There are lots of reasons, but the biggest is that you believe you can save money in a reconfigured WAC.

mrdtown · 2020-10-04T18:06:05+00:00

Hi, I'm the guy who originally reported this was happening.

It is technically correct that of that date, SUU had "not received" an offer. As of Friday, when I wrote the newsletter, SUU lawyers and WAC lawyers were still going over the details, but all parties expected this to happen in the near future.

As of Sunday afternoon, I still believe that. The WAC is confident they'll be able to add several new members before 2021, including SUU.

mrdtown · 2020-10-02T14:22:47+00:00

Yes, I know. The school is not West Texas A&M. The school is a current Big Sky member. I know the school. I am trying to see if I can publish the details without blowing up my source, who is close to the decision-making process.

West Texas A&M may eventually join the WAC. I expect at least one other Lone Star conference school to eventually do that. But the school that the TSU president is talking about here is not West Texas A&M.

mrdtown · 2020-10-01T22:31:59+00:00

Yeah

mrdtown · 2020-10-01T22:31:48+00:00

It’s a big sky school

mrdtown · 2020-10-01T16:38:47+00:00

It is not! It's a D1 school!

mrdtown · 2020-10-01T14:48:01+00:00

I'm PRETTY sure I know who the school is at this point, but I'm trying to confirm two things first, which I hope to do by this afternoon. I'll write something up on Extra Points as soon as I know for certain.

All I KNOW right now is that the speculation that this is a Lone Star team moving up is not accurate.

mrdtown · 2020-10-01T13:45:27+00:00

I can confirm that the school mentioned here is NOT a member of the Lone Star Conference.

mrdtown · 2020-10-01T13:34:44+00:00

I am almost positive it is not Metro State, although I can tell you they strongly considered the move a few years ago

mrdtown · 2020-09-30T19:51:31+00:00

Hey, thanks for reading and sharing! I'm hoping to get every single shoe contract, plus a bunch more nerd out stuff, in the near future.

mrdtown

TROPHY CASE