WAC Basketball Not Dead As Some Thought Last Night

by Jeremy Mauss on Aug 19, 2010 7:35 AM PDT in Conference Expansion

My inaccurate assumption was that a league below eight teams would not receive an auto-bid to the NCCA, but that is not the case as the NCAA will allow the WAC to still get a basketball auto bid with six teams. Adding BYU would give them seven and still allow them to have hope that the league will stay together.

Karl Benson has said that he will be attempting to get the $10 million penalty from Nevada and Fresno State for leaving even though they supposedly did not sign that agreement, and Benson is looking to expanding the WAC.

This by no means leaves the WAC in much better shape, because football wise they are still at six and that does not allow them to be a FBS league. Not sure if Benson can gather two more teams or somehow convince BYU to play football in the WAC (I doubt that). There could be a rash of teams either going independent for a year or two or some drop to FCS status.

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The WAC would still need to get to seven...eventually.

NCAA rules give the WAC a two-year grace period where they can keep their auto bid with six members. However, they have to expand for when that period elapses.

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by Chris Dobbertean on Aug 19, 2010 9:15 AM PDT reply actions

Interesting

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UNLV is going all the way this year!

by rebelfan1 on Aug 19, 2010 10:14 AM PDT up reply actions

Great point- didn't know that. nt

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by Adrian Mac on Aug 19, 2010 5:32 PM PDT up reply actions

This changes the probability of if BYU would leave...

greatly

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UNLV is going all the way this year!

by rebelfan1 on Aug 19, 2010 10:14 AM PDT reply actions

NCAA rules requre eight teams

but allow exemptions if they lose teams to allow conferences a fair chance to fix the issues caused by defecting members.

The WAC would qualify for these exemptions, which should include their FBS membership for two years.

Really, as far as the NCAA is concerned, what would be the difference between the six schools being independents and a six team conference in football?

The WAC can pretty much force Fresno State and Nevada to stay until 2012. They could act now to move targeted FCS teams to FBS with a transitional year in 2011 and WAC membership in 2012 and not miss a beat. If the process gets caught on a snag, they have access to an exemption for the year gap.

I would pick Montana to be the early favorite in the new WAC.

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by utesfan100 on Aug 19, 2010 2:45 PM PDT reply actions

One difference would be the NCAA basketball tournament.

No more autobid, but they’ll have at least until 2012, if not 2013 or 2014 to fix it.

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by displacedute on Aug 19, 2010 4:05 PM PDT up reply actions

AS long as they have six continuous teams

they can get an exemption for up to two years to get to eight long term. Basketball is the point of the ESPN article above.

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by utesfan100 on Aug 19, 2010 4:35 PM PDT up reply actions

Right, that's why I said they have until 2012 at least, if not 2013 or 2104 to fix it.

Have to have 8, but you have a grace period to get there.

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by displacedute on Aug 20, 2010 11:15 AM PDT up reply actions

Montana already turned the WACdown when Boise State left though, so the WAC is going to have to bring Montana’s rival up as well. Otherwise it’s time to dumpster dive in the Sun Belt.

by HawkeyedFrog on Aug 19, 2010 5:53 PM PDT up reply actions