Jump to content

UTEP moving to Mountain West?


Recommended Posts

This information comes from the NMSU Chancellor and is linked below for authenticty:

Activity Report March 3 – March 9
By Office of President | Published March 13, 2018

Chancellor Garrey Carruthers

"While at the WAC Basketball Tournament, I met with the Presidents and Athletic Directors of the WAC schools to discuss business as well as the challenges facing the Conference regarding membership. The WAC is initiating an aggressive membership campaign. Commissioner Jeff Hurd said “something was going to happen and happen soon” regarding conference alignments and realignments. One rumor was the Mountain West would become a 16-member conference with two-8 member divisions. NMSU could come into play as a new member, along with UTEP."

https://president.nmsu.edu/activity-report-march-3-march-9/

  • Lovely Take 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Coach Bill Lewis said:

This information comes from the NMSU Chancellor and is linked below for authenticty:

Activity Report March 3 – March 9
By Office of President | Published March 13, 2018

Chancellor Garrey Carruthers

"While at the WAC Basketball Tournament, I met with the Presidents and Athletic Directors of the WAC schools to discuss business as well as the challenges facing the Conference regarding membership. The WAC is initiating an aggressive membership campaign. Commissioner Jeff Hurd said “something was going to happen and happen soon” regarding conference alignments and realignments. One rumor was the Mountain West would become a 16-member conference with two-8 member divisions. NMSU could come into play as a new member, along with UTEP."

https://president.nmsu.edu/activity-report-march-3-march-9/

I have a hard time seeing New Mexico or UTEP being enthusiastic about NMSU. NMSU fills a vital role in plugging the non-conference schedule. Let them in and now you lose a locked in non-conference date across multiple sports.

I'd love it for NMSU but I don't see it making good financial sense for UNM.

  • Upvote 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Arkstfan said:

I have a hard time seeing New Mexico or UTEP being enthusiastic about NMSU. NMSU fills a vital role in plugging the non-conference schedule. Let them in and now you lose a locked in non-conference date across multiple sports.

I'd love it for NMSU but I don't see it making good financial sense for UNM.

UTEP's input would be irrelevant, they would not get a vote. Even with NMSU joining I don't think UTEP would be affected. NMSU basketball is a plus.

  • Lovely Take 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I have read the MWC wants to beef up its basketball programs, and they are not interested in increasing  the number of football teams.This would work great for BYU as they could move all sports except football to MWC, play football as an independent ,and keep their television contract much like UT except on a smaller scale.It also would be a life saver for NMSU, but the Lobos would probably nix that idea.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

UTEP has always wanted to be in the MWC.  When the old WAC broke up UTEP was left without a conference.  UTEP has a lot of history with most of the MWC teams and they are in the same time zone.  Right now I dont what UTEP would bring to the MWC.  UTEP football and basketball program are really struggling.  We have been through what UTEP is gong through many times and I think it has cost us better conference opportunities.  I dont think the the P-5 will be adding anyone because they dont want to share the pie.

Maybe the next conference shake ups will make room for some strong regional conferences.  I think the P5 conferences should break into their own league and not be part of the NCAA because they tend to walk all over the NCAA.  

Let the P6 develop their own conference that make sense regionally because the TV money is being sucked out of the P5 teams.  Then make the P5 teams pay a fortune if they want to play a P6 school.  Maybe this would make the P5 schools get back to their rivalry games like A&M vs the Long Whores, Nebraska vs Oklahoma...etc.

 

  • Lovely Take 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What financial benefits do NMSU and UTEP bring to the the table...not much. I would think that if the MWC are going to add schools that they would want them somewhat financially sound (the athletic departments) and extend their recruiting territory. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm. I wonder if the MWC may be willing to give out temporary membership to the two schools similar to what the Sunbelt did with Idaho and NMSU) to see how it goes. If that were the case this would, however, be a huge gamble for UTEP.

It's probably no coincidence that this comes out of NMSUs kitchen since NMSU has nothing to lose and certainly wants discussion and more fluidity in the conference landscape.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The MWC will get back into Texas, but it won’t be anytime soon. They could get UTEP anytime, but they’d much rather have TCU, Baylor, and any other Big XII leftovers. I suspect that both of those schools will go to the MWC when the Big XII GOR expires in 2025.

But I suspect UTEP and another Texas school could join them, like UTSA, Rice, or us.

  • Haha 1
  • Confused 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

I don’t believe the NCAA allows a team to put its basketball in one conference and put football elsewhere if the first conference offers the same level of football (ie FBS). Because of this I don’t think BYU could play MWC hoops and place their football somewhere else. 

Almost.

You mean like how Notre Dame plays all sports except football in the ACC?

The NCAA requires that if a conference wants to be treated as an FBS conference (ie. vote on FBS issues) that there must be 8 FBS schools playing all sports in the conference.

The NCAA doesn't care where the 9th or 10th football member plays its other sports as long as there are 8 all sports football members.

After Utah left MWC, BYU was going to play everything but football in the WAC but MWC raided WAC and left it on the verge of collapse.

As a practical matter most conferences want all members to be all in unless they need a school in a sport to round out the numbers.

If Texas wanted to go independent in football and wanted CUSA as its home for all other sports it wouldn't take long for CUSA to bless that move but if FAU announced they were joining AAC football only it wouldn't take long to kick them out of CUSA in other sports.

  • Upvote 1
  • Thanks 1
  • Downvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, greenminer said:

Where did you read this?

The article I read made it sound like the zags might be using this more as a negotiation with their current conference. They want a bigger piece of the money they are bringing every year from the NCAA tournament since it is currently split between the conference schools and the zags have been the main school for years bringing in the money

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TreeFiddy said:

Of course. Not sure what I was thinking. Keeping football independent is allowed.

However, isn’t there a rule about having basketball in a conference that has FBS football and placing football in another FBS conference?

NCAA doesn't care. Their interest ends in football as soon as you show you have 8 FBS members playing all-sports  (at least 12 sports) and in hoops ends as soon as you show you have at least 7 schools playing at least 12 sports in the conference.

Most every conference has a rule saying that if you are a full member then any sport you offer where the conference offers a championship, you must play that sport in the conference.

So if UNT adds baseball, you can't be an independent or an affiliate of the Southland. If Sun Belt started sponsoring women's swimming and diving again, UALR would have to move that sport out of the MoValley. If the MWC offered men's soccer, New Mexico would have to leave CUSA.

Some conferences will also have a rule requiring any full member to sponsor certain specific sports. 

  • Downvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, El Paso Eagle said:

The article I read made it sound like the zags might be using this more as a negotiation with their current conference. They want a bigger piece of the money they are bringing every year from the NCAA tournament since it is currently split between the conference schools and the zags have been the main school for years bringing in the money

Maybe.

We know what the Wichita State president was saying in the run up to getting an AAC invite (when they were still toying with adding football). His logic was it is getting harder and harder for non-P5 schools to get TV exposure and respect from poll voters and the selection committee and made no bones he thought Wichita State needed to join MWC or AAC to have better exposure and respect.

Wichita clearly felt that but for football, MWC and AAC were peer schools.

Gonzaga being a small Catholic school might believe that affiliating with large public universities is not in their best interest. I think that would be a mistake but I'm not getting paid six figures to be responsible for their best interests.

  • Downvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, UNTexas said:

UTEP is terrible academically and awful at sports. Not a loss if they go. The real question is why would MWC want them?

Craig Thompson as a commissioner doesn't just think outside the box, he denies the box exists.

But the more I think on it, I just can't see it making a great deal of sense for MWC to do anything other than add Gonzaga. 

The only way any larger would make sense would be if BYU were to return and that doesn't seem likely. If BYU came back, I could see inviting UTEP to round out to 14 and pushing Boise to the western division. Otherwise it really doesn't make much sense.

Edited by Arkstfan
  • Downvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Please review our full Privacy Policy before using our site.