WAC Is Still Trying To Lure BYU And Houston Is Not In Talks With Mountain West

by Jeremy Mauss on Aug 28, 2010 8:42 AM PDT in Conference Expansion

WAC commissioner Karl Benson is going do his best to get BYU in his league for his non-football sports, and to have them set up a nice series with the football partners:

WAC commissioner Karl Benson told The Salt Lake Tribune on Friday evening that his conference is still negotiating with BYU about the possibility of the Cougars going independent in football and placing its non-football sports in the WAC.

[...]

That the Cougars would join a six-team WAC (Boise jumped to the MWC in June, beginning in 2011) seems implausible, but reports have surfaced that the WAC and/or BYU have approached Houston, UTEP and SMU of Conference USA recently about their interest.

The second part seems interested and I am pretty confident that this potential invite to Houston and/or UTEP is first to make the league attractive for BYU to join, possibly make a switch for Louisiana Tech to go to a more travel friendly league as C-USA, or if the choice is Houston which will give Louisiana Tech a travel partner.

UTEP would love to go to the WAC for travel reasons plus it could make sense for Houston because they could take the place of Boise State by winning a league with ease and far less chances of losing games.

Back to the Mountain West side of things with Houston, the Cougars have came out and said that no contact between them and the Mountain West has taken place:

"We are not in discussions with the Mountain West," Rhoades said. "We're proud to be part of Conference USA and have respect for the 11 other institutions. We're working hard to become better as an institution. We're always going to look to better ourselves. We're always going to look for opportunity.

"And if we can do that, everything else will take care of itself."

That is pretty straight forward from the Houston side. For those who are wondering what the buyout clause is for C-USA this is from the same Houston Chronicle article:

C-USA rules, meanwhile, state that a school must give at least one year's notice before withdrawing from the league. The exit fee for a school giving a year's notice before departure is $500,000, plus whatever damages C-USA incurs to its television and licensing during the subsequent five years. The deadline for leaving C-USA in time for the 2011 season was July 1, 2010.

So, the buyout could be much more if the television partners deem losing Houston makes the television deal that much less. Who knows if the penalty is the total difference in value of the deal which could be a lot, so it might be in Houston's best interest to inquire about the Mountain West until 2011 when we will know if the Mountain West is a BCS league or not.

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Comments

Can't blame the WAC for trying.

But for a league that just lost its three best programs, it’ll be hard to convince a CUSA team to join up. That, and if the WAC is making another run at BYU, I would imagine that the MWC would try to undercut the deal again.

;-)

by David Hooper on Aug 28, 2010 8:52 AM PDT reply actions

WAC: COME JOIN US

We have nothing to offer you! Leave your secure home in C-USA. And don’t worry about travel…cause you will be bringing your travel partners with you! OH, and don’t forget your travel cost just wen through the roof…but San Jose and Hawaii you’ll love!

um…..unless they can offer more money or a quicker path to BCS qualification, the WAC has nothing any C-USA team would want.

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by Redhawk on Aug 28, 2010 9:26 AM PDT reply actions

If they came they could be the b!^(% of BYU though?

Who wouldn’t want that? I bet they are chomping at the bit to let BYU take advantage of them with that sweet deal the WAC was going to give them.

I am sure Nevada and Fresno are kicking themself right now. They won’t be able to participate in that deal to give BYU everything they wanted.

I can understand a small team bording on falling back to div II status taking it. But not the C-USA teams you mention.

by daedalus17 on Aug 28, 2010 3:46 PM PDT up reply actions

Um...

I’m disputing this line, “UTEP would love to go to the WAC for travel reasons and old rivals,” considering that the WAC, as currently composed, wouldn’t have many of UTEP’s old rivals, save for New Mexico State and/or old conference foe Hawaii. UTEP has virtually no history with San Jose State, Utah State, Idaho, and Louisiana Tech. BYU would probably be nice, but I can’t see why UTEP (or Houston and SMU) would leave C-USA for the WAC, BYU or not.

by VA Libertarian on Aug 28, 2010 9:46 AM PDT reply actions

I should adjust that

Travel would be an issue to stay, old rivals was a line was wavering on.

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by Jeremy Mauss on Aug 28, 2010 10:38 AM PDT up reply actions

The WAC is reaching out to CUSA teams- Houston, SMU and UTEP? SMU and UTEP have both been there and both left for the greener pastures and better bowl tie-ins of CUSA. SMU, Houston and Rice won’t want to be split up unless there’s a lot more in it for them than just an easy shot at a league title. They’re not moving unless its to the MWC, especially with the CUSA buyout mentioned later in this same post.

by HawkeyedFrog on Aug 28, 2010 10:05 AM PDT reply actions

i blame byu b/c you know they will make their decision on the last day possible. september 1st.

conference usa is much better than wac and has a better name. they are still people on the east coast theat still call it the wacky wac. i don’t want that moniker. if byu would just say they are staying with mwc instead of being the egotistical university they are we probably could have gotten houston or utep or tulsa.

I'm all about covering the spread and moneylines. Glory favors the bold. Chance favors the prepared mind. Luck, well i have that too. University of Utah goes to the Pac-12 conference in 2011. I expect them to compete immediately for the conference CG. Brock Lesnar will defeat Cain Velasquez. Womens MMA, the next big thing in sports. 1 week till the first game of college football. UTAH vs Pitt. September 2nd 2010.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Aug 28, 2010 1:38 PM PDT up reply actions

Does anyone else think....

that the MWC is also ready to offer 1 or 2 more schools depending on BYU’s decision. Or are they going to stick with the status quo and hang with 10 for a while. I mean if BYU is seriously still considering the WAC you know they could invite Utah St just to get rid of their BBall bid which would kill any agreement with BYU. While I agree with most of you that Utah St isn’t the most attractive, I am concerned that the MWC hasn’t made any more moves to offer UTEP or Houston so that CUSA can steal away LA Tech. While we all think the WAC is near death, with Hawaii and LA Tech looking at other options, I would feel much more comfortable knowing that they are truly dead and that BYU would have to go to the WCC all all other sports.

by TowerPower on Aug 29, 2010 8:59 AM PDT up reply actions

i would take utah state over la. tech if that is what you are saying

usu has a really good basketball program and this year in football they could get 6 or 7 wins with an experienced qb and many starter back from this year. it would be nice to hear that when byu says they ae staying that thompson also says he either invites houston, utep or tulsa to mwc to make even 12 teams but something is telling me that won’t happen. if byu does go the independent route lets just take utah state and really screw them over in the other sports. i say byu says they stay on wednesday.

by wolfmanshowlforever on Aug 29, 2010 4:43 PM PDT up reply actions