The WAC is dead, not technically but it is assumed the long time league is going under by June of 2013. The latest team to jump off of the sinking ship is the Texas State Bobcats who are leaving the WAC to join the Sun Belt Conference in 2013.
Texas State joins Utah State, San Jose State and Texas-San Antonio who are leaving the WAC. Utah State and San Jose State are heading to the Mountain West while UTSA is heading to Conference USA. While the demise of the WAC was only a matter of time, but most thought the Mountain West would come out looking good.
However there was yet another misstep from the league offices, specifically in Craig Thompson who chose to go after Utah State and San Jose State instead of two burgeoning markets in Texas State and UTSA.
UTSA in just their first year of major college football and in their first game had 56,743 people in attendance and for the season averaged 35,521 which was a FBS record. San Jose State averaged 14,474 while Utah State averaged 17,787 per game this past season.
Yes, UTSA will probably drop in attendance in their second year but San Antonio is a market that is not fully saturated with Texas and Texas A&M fans, so that area has room for growth. Plus, the Texas market is huge for recruiting and television eye balls.
Texas State on the other hand has been around the FCS level for a while and while their attendance was at 12,805 they are still in Texas and would have been a nice travel partner for UTSA.
Thompson had to have known that those two schools were looking to move on, so why not go on an make a move for those schools. Adding Utah State is a solid addition since they are getting better at football and are exceptional at basketball, but why San Jose State.
Texas State, UTSA and Utah State would put the Mountain West at 11 teams and then I guess add San Jose State for a 12th team since they are better than New Mexico State and Idaho since UTEP is possibly be on the table.
The potential is there for UTSA and Texas State while San Jose State's program was nearly dropped a few years ago, so their addition is odd and out of place compared to what could be for the two Texas schools.
Well, it is just another misstep in the expansion process by the Thompson and Mountain West leaders.
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