Dixie State and Tarleton State both currently play as FCS Independents. Related Posts HOUSTON (AP) — Football is returning in the Western Athletic Conference, this time at the Championship Subdivision level. Which league would take student-athletes away from class the least? View the 2021 WAC football schedule at FBSchedules.com. “Once we heard football was involved, my reaction was that this is something we should talk about,” Corum told The Tribune. There would be a bit of costs to offset, but this may be in NMSU best interest to drop down since it is wildly expensive to be an independent FBS team and retain a decent schedule year-to-year. If the WAC returns for football at the FCS level, these two would simply move whenever the WAC comes back. Note: Current WAC member Texas Rio Grande Valley is planning to join the conference in football by 2023 or 2024. It includes a home-and-home with Tarleton State, a trip to FBS New Mexico State, which is a WAC member in everything but football, a trip to Big South power Kennesaw State, and a pair of home games against old Division II Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference partners Fort Lewis and New Mexico Highlands. The summation of those early talks was essentially Wyatt politely declining, citing the fact that the WAC did not have football, the Big Sky did, and that was that. “I know Texas football is really good, but I felt aligning ourselves with Texas sports would be very challenging for us. The initial 7 WAC members: Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin. By the time March arrived, there were enough internal discussions among Wyatt and other high-level SUU officials that everyone decided to take a harder look at moving to the WAC. 1/2 — Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 6, 2021 Which league would generate the best natural rivalries? The Big Sky will go from 12 to 11 members with Southern Utah’s departure. At that point, Wyatt was at least willing to listen. The WAC previously sponsored football in the Bowl Subdivision from 1962-2012. The four Southland schools are on track to become members in July, with Southern Utah joining in July 2022, assistant commissioner of media relations Chris Thompson said Friday. Leland helped give SUU officials the macro perspective of the potential move. The WAC will be split into two divisions for sports other than football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. The WAC continues to seek an eighth football member that would bring league membership to 14 schools, but no timetable for that is set. Southern Utah, Tarleton State and Dixie State. The league announced this week it would add four schools from the Southland Conference and one from the Big Sky to bring its membership to 13. One of the major questions Leland posed was the same obvious topic broached by Corum, who served as the associate commissioner of the SEC from 2000-12. Difficult, expensive trips to Idaho, Montana and Washington will be replaced by more-palatable excursions to places like Phoenix (Grand Canyon University), Southern California (Cal Baptist) and multiple areas of Texas. One division will be made up of the Texas schools. Posted: Jan 15, 2021 / 02:00 PM CST / Updated: Jan 15, 2021 / 12:51 PM CST. The timing was right for Southern Utah and Dixie State to join the WAC. “If you were to ask any Big Sky member who its No. The initial 7 WAC members: Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin. “Weber State is closer to southern Idaho (where Idaho State is located). In addition to the four schools leaving for the WAC, the Southland Conference also will lose Central Arkansas to the ASUN Conference effective July 1. “No, none,” Dixie State athletic director Jason Boothe told The Tribune when asked if he had any inclination that football was coming to the WAC when the school signed on two years ago. HOUSTON (AP) — Football is returning in the Western Athletic Conference, this time at the Championship Subdivision level.The league announced this week it would add four schools from the Southland Conference and one from the Big Sky to bring its membership to 13.The five new members will join Dixie State and Tarleton State in a WAC football League. “I cannot overstate my level of excitement in making this expansion announcement,” WAC Commissioner Jeff Hurd said. WAC football steadily declined after that. “From a conference standpoint, Southern Utah is a natural fit, giving us a third Utah institution along with Dixie State and UVU,” WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd told The Tribune. The in-state rivalries were appealing and I know from experience that if you can get into bigger, major media markets, it just changes everything for you.”. The Western Athletic Conference announced that five teams will be joining the conference effective July of 2022 as well as the its intention to reinstate college football in the WAC the same year. The WAC previously sponsored football in the Bowl Subdivision from 1962 to 2012. Photo courtesy of Southern Utah University. Sources: The WAC plans to announce on Jan. 14 at NRG Stadium in Houston the formation of its FCS league, which starts play in football in 2022. The WAC continues to seek an eighth football member that would bring league membership to 14 schools, but no timetable for that is set. The WAC previously sponsored football at the Football Bowl Subdivision from 1962 until 2012. In addition to the seven football schools, non-football members of the WAC include: California Baptist, Chicago State, Grand Canyon, Seattle University, UTRGV and Utah Valley. Those are close, exciting opportunities.”. “We didn’t make the move to Division I football thinking the sport would wind up in the WAC. The five new members will join Dixie State and Tarleton State in a WAC football League. Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State, and Stephen F. Austin, colloquially dubbed “The Texas Four,” were planning their exit from the Southland Conference. This is a list of schools in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that play football in the United States as a varsity sport and are members of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), known as Division I-AA from 1978 through 2005. Rapid expansion to 16 teams spread from Hawaii to Oklahoma, minimal television revenue and high travel expenses prompted eight schools to leave and form the Mountain West in 1999. Donate to the newsroom now. “A reimagined Southland configuration with new regional partner universities is exciting,” Burnett said, “and our membership is confidently working toward an outstanding outcome.”. Football is returning in the Western Athletic Conference, this time at the Championship Subdivision level. The WAC was fine with that, announcing on Thursday that those four would join on July 1. Leland was the athletic director at Stanford from 1991-2005. But given the WAC’s 51-year history as a conference at the highest division of college football, the league seems to be a logical launch point for a move to the FBS. With the 2020 FCS season moved to this spring, even that COVID-impacted six-game slate was deftly put together. More AP college football: http://apnews.com/hub/college-football and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. On Jan. 11, 2019, Dixie State announced it was moving from Division II to Division I as a member of the WAC, which obviously did not sponsor football at the time. Southern Utah is slated to join in July 2022. Hurd immediately threw cold water on that notion, offering the “crawl before you learn to walk” mantra with the league cautiously moving into FCS competition first. The first iteration of WAC football produced wild, high-scoring games that entertained late Saturday night TV viewers in the Central and Eastern time zones. You sometimes struggle to get home games as an independent.”. (Photo courtesy of Southern Utah University) President Scott L. Wyatt will welcome students back to campus in Cedar City this fall. Re: WAC To announce New FCS Football Conference Post by Steve 82 » Wed Jan 06, 2021 4:57 pm There is still around 10 days left in the 60 day negotiating period. “The opportunity to bring five quality institutions into the conference, to significantly strengthen the WAC’s national basketball brand and other championship sport profiles, and to bring football back under the WAC umbrella, is one that made sense,” WAC Commissioner Jeff Hurd said. The newly added schools play FCS football and will join the WAC on July 1. The WAC will start as a Football Championship Series (FCS) conference in 2021, and will reportedly add two more schools in the coming months according to Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel. Plans to begin WAC football are now moving to this fall, but one league spokesman painted that situation to The Tribune as being in the early stages with a lot of details to work out. The WAC currently has three football-playing members in Dixie State, New Mexico State, and Tarleton State. The T-Birds signed on with the reconfigured, joining rival Dixie State, beginning in 2022. Expansion could bring football back to WAC this fall in FCS. The five new members will join Dixie State and Tarleton State in a WAC football League. In order for a conference to have an automatic bid, it needs to have six eligible teams. The life of an FCS independent can be rough from a scheduling standpoint, but Dixie State made it happen, cobbling together full 10-game slates in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The Western Athletic Conference, which Nevada was a member of from 2000-12, is restarting its football operation, according to Yahoo! WAC football steadily declined after that. The new members are Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin from the Southland and Southern Utah from the Big Sky. Central Arkansas athletic director Brad Teague confirmed the move to The Associated Press on Friday. Several other FCS or Division II programs could be added in the coming months, and the long-term goal of the league is to elevate football back to the FBS, where current WAC member New Mexico State plays as an independent, the report added. Athletic director Debbie Corum was now deeply involved, while Ted Leland volunteered his time to the matter as a consultant. The league has two other members, New Orleans and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, that don’t play football. Sources: The WAC plans to announce on Jan. 14 at NRG Stadium in Houston the formation of its FCS league, which starts play in football in 2022. Not long after his appointment as SUU’s president in Jan. 2014, the WAC reached out for what Wyatt calls “casual conversations” in an effort to gauge his interest in moving his athletic programs from the Big Sky. The pinnacle was reached in 1984 when BYU won the national championship. Thamel reported Wednesday that the WAC will announce on Jan. 14 atNRG Stadium in Houston that it will start playing football at the FCS level in 2022 with the goal of moving to the FBS within a decade. Football McFeely blog: WAC reignites as FCS conference, adds teams from Southland and Big Sky Abilene Christian president says league intends 'to push forward aggressively the sport of football' Current Football Teams. Sacramento St could join the Big West and their rivals Cal-Poly and UC-Davis with football only in the BSC or WAC. The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) will reinstate football at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level in 2022, the conference announced on Thursday. The league announced this week it would add four schools from the Southland Conference and one from the Big Sky to bring its membership to 13. In order for this to happen, the WAC has to find an eighth school that is eligible immediately. deductible, Report a missed paper by emailing subscribe@sltrib.com or calling 801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support 801-237-2900 or email subscribe@sltrib.com. On Jan. 14, the WAC announced it was adding five new members in all sports. “The four Texas schools were looking to join the WAC, they wanted to know if we wanted to be in and join,” Wyatt told The Salt Lake Tribune during a phone interview. The pinnacle was reached in 1984 when BYU won the national championship. All rights reserved. WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd also announced the conference's intention to reinstate football at the FCS level beginning with the 2022 season. The WAC … About a year ago, those realignment conversations came back around, but this time, it was a little more serious. “Having that many Utah schools in our league cannot be undersold or underestimated. The WAC, which currently sponsors 10 women’s sports and nine men’s sports, was an FBS conference from 1962 to 2012 before dropping football as teams left for other leagues. Those are of course in addition to bus trips to Dixie State in St. George and Utah Valley in Orem. The other division will include Southern Utah, Dixie State, New Mexico State, Grand Canyon, California Baptist, Seattle and Utah Valley. WAC adds Southern Utah and four other schools; will revive football at the FCS level in 2022 SUU will join in-state rivals Utah Valley and Dixie State in expanded conference While the WAC considering an all FBS football conference is bananas, it is not entirely out of the question for New Mexico State to drop down to FCS football. Which option is least expensive and, in turn, allows SUU to shift resources from travel to performance? The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. Expansion could bring football back to WAC this fall in FCS Sports. Seven Pro Football Hall of Famers played in the WAC … The Trailblazers instead opted to house football as one of only three FCS independents nationwide. Corum was Leland’s assistant AD from 1994-96. He added that it’s anticipated a six-team WAC football league will begin this fall. That timeline comes off as aggressive, because to be fair, the WAC football members will not go into 2022 on equal footing. An eighth football member at some point is likely, potentially current WAC member Rio Grande Valley, which has announced early plans to start playing football in 2024. (Jordan Allred/The Spectrum & Daily News via AP) | Southern Utah spend a number of years politely rebuffing the advances of the Western Athletic Conference, but things changed when the WAC hatched plans to revive football at the FCS level. Now, the WAC is making a push to re-emerge as a competitive FCS football league. The WAC previously sponsored football in the Bowl Subdivision from 1962-2012. “From a scheduling standpoint, that’s huge because you know you’re guaranteed three or four home games every year without even doing anything. The ones that would get the community, alumni and students excited? 1 rival is, no one would say SUU,” Wyatt said. Wyatt believes that if the WAC football members move in lockstep, with their similar budgets, similar experiences, and similar aspirations, a move to FBS could work, potentially as early as 2027. In addition to the four schools leaving for the WAC, the Southland Conference also will lose Central Arkansas to the ASUN Conference effective July 1. Sam Houston State won 99 games during the 2010s decade - the second-most in the FCS to North Dakota State. Southern Utah’s WAC entry date remains July 1, 2022. Wyatt echoed that a move to FBS would be a heavy lift, but he was willing to be optimistic. The way Scott Wyatt remembers it, the genesis of Southern Utah University’s move to the Western Athletic Conference dates back roughly seven years. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax We were comfortable being independent for as long as we had to.”. “Rivalries with Dixie State and UVU are natural. Sources: The WAC plans to announce on Jan. 14 at NRG Stadium in Houston the formation of its FCS league, which starts play in football in 2022. The Big Sky would not have any leverage over Sac st with two Western FCS conferences. With the intention of The Texas Four firm and not changing, this topic wasn’t going away. Their proximity to our Western schools helps and in terms of brand recognition, the Big Sky is good, but the WAC brand recognition is significant.”. Sources: The WAC plans to announce on Jan. 14 at NRG Stadium in Houston the formation of its FCS league, which starts play in football in 2022. WAC football that fall is scheduled to include The Texas Four and the Thunderbirds, plus FCS independents Dixie State and Stephenville, Texas-based Tarleton State. sltrib.com © 1996-2021 The Salt Lake Tribune. I think we toyed with it at the time, but it didn’t go anywhere.”. by: Associated Press. ”“The opportunity to bring five quality institutions into the conference, to significantly strengthen the WAC’s national basketball brand and other championship sport profiles, and to bring football back under the WAC umbrella is one that made sense.”. There is a case to be made that Dixie State, as well as Tarleton State, are the big winners of the WAC opting to restart football. Read full article. The initial 7 WAC members: Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin. Wyatt ballparked that SUU’s athletics-related expenses will go down by between $200,000-300,000 as a member of the WAC, mostly because travel is going to be easier. Southland Commissioner Tom Burnett said new members are being sought. What would a travel schedule in the WAC look like vs. travel in the Big Sky? We also have team-by-team schedules, future schedules, and future non-conference opponents. Southern Utah, Tarleton State and Dixie State. NAU is closer to us, but there’s a long canyon in between and it’s a long drive. As it stands, a WAC football conference would have seven teams with two of those teams, Tarleton State and Dixie State, not eligible for the FCS playoffs. Their collective intention was not only to move to the WAC, but to do so while leading the charge to reinstate WAC football, which was dropped in 2012 after years of attrition from the league. The initial 7 WAC … For all intents and purposes, the Southland has expedited the exit of The Texas Four to this year instead of the original plan of 2022. “In 2022, there will be a WAC championship to play for,” Boothe said. The WAC surely wants back into football even more than the ASUN because it sponsored the sport for 51 ... Haley has covered the FCS level since 1999 and is the national writer for www.fcs.football. New Southern Utah athletic director Debbie Corum. The new members are Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam … The first iteration of WAC football produced wild, high-scoring games that entertained late Saturday night TV viewers in the Central and Eastern time zones. This fall, the six-team FCS football league will include Tarleton State, Dixie State, Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin. “We like them, we’re familiar with all of those schools. Sports reporter Pete Thamel. 1/2 — Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 6, 2021 The Southland would go from 11 to six football schools this fall. There has been significant chatter since the WAC expansion was announced about an eventual move to the FBS level.
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