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Karl Benson new Sun Belt Commish

LakeTravis

By LakeTravis
in Mean Green Football

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LakeTravis Newbie

LakeTravis

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Posted (edited)

well, he finally has us. Oh Dear Lord

"WAC commissioner Karl Benson is expected to take the same position with the Sun Belt Conference, CBSSports.com has learned.

Benson, 60, has been in his current position since 1994. The recent instability of the league may have led to his decision to pursue the Sun Belt job. Current Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters is retiring later this year.

Under Benson's watch both Boise State and Hawaii played in BCS bowls since 2007. But conference realignment has cost him both of those schools. The WAC currently consists of eight schools in 2012. However, Hawaii, Nevada and Fresno State are leaving for what will be the new Mountain West/Conference USA conglomerate in 2013.

In the late 1990s, Benson oversaw the first super conference when the WAC expanded to 16 teams. The arrangement quickly became too unwieldy. In 1999, eight schools broke off to form the Mountain West.

Benson is a proud former shortstop at Boise State. He is expected to take office at the New Orleans-based Sun Belt on April 1, the week the city is hosting the Final Four. "

CBSSports

Will he bring along UTSA,TX State, NMSU?

Will this kill the WAC?

How does this effect the pursuit of the new MW/CUSA merger to get Utah State/LA Tech from the WAC

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El Paso Eagle Grand Master

El Paso Eagle

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At the least you have to give KB credit for everything the WAC has gone through. My guess at this point …. Look for a Sun Belt/WAC merger very quickly. On the "wild" side, a Belt-WAC-MAC merger???? Then you end up with the AQ conferences and two large non-AQ conferences

Edited by El Paso Eagle
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GrayEagle Veteran

GrayEagle

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I don't know his demeanor; whether he is harsh and grating or fairly soft-spoken but I do think that he'll do a good job for the Sun Belt.

I think that it's in his genes to have a large conference because he's seen what can happen if you have barely enough teams to operate. I look for there to be 12-16 teams in the Sun Belt in the not-too-distant future. Who knows how many will be from the WAC? Probably none early. If he brought in UTSA and Texas State he'd be doing a great disservice to UTA. San Jose and Idaho are simply too far. Denver would be almost as isolated as they were in the Sun Belt. He'd probably like to take them all...and he may figure out a way to do it.

On second thought maybe the Belt becomes the next 16-24 team conference. Twenty four teams? Really? It has a familiar ring.

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UNT90 Newbie

UNT90

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Am I the only one who has great pause in hiring a guy who a) led a conference to the verge of extinction, and c) is now attempting to jump ship from that very same conference before the break up.

Kind of like a captain abandoning a sinking ship.

Edited by UNT90
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NorthTexan95 Experienced

NorthTexan95

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I really have a lot of respect for what Bensen has done over the years. It has always seemed that the WAC was dealing with a short deck and I think he made the best of it. I certainly don't think you can blame him for the situation the WAC finds itself in today.

He wouldn't have been my first choice for the Sun Belt but I'm hopefully it will work out. That said, I hope our time in the Sun Belt is short.

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VideoEagle Mentor

VideoEagle

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Can leagues even do that? I wonder if ULM can sue if that actually happened.

They can, but don't except in extreme circumstances. Temple was kicked out of the Big East for basically refusing to fund their football program at a D1 level. They have since started to support the program more.

UT-Pan Am was kicked out of the Sun Belt after being put on NCAA probation then trying to use that as an excuse to not fund their basketball and/or their baseball at a D1 level.

ULM is an interesting case. They aren't really funding at a level to produce a competitive teams in all sports at once. They are putting money into one sport at a time while reducing it to others. But, they didn't really want in the Sun Belt to begin with and joined as football only when La Tech tried to kill the idea of the Sun Belt sponsoring football. When NCAA rules required the Belt to have one more full member, again ULM stepped up when no one else would. Now that they are in, of course they don't want to go back down and I certainly don't blame them for that. They did what they were asked to do and now many want to punish them for stepping up when they weren't really ready.

And yes, I'm sure they could bring a suit. I'm not sure how far that would get or what the kind of publicity it would bring. Suits can cost far more than just money!

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Arkstfan Proficient

Arkstfan

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At the least you have to give KB credit for everything the WAC has gone through. My guess at this point …. Look for a Sun Belt/WAC merger very quickly. On the "wild" side, a Belt-WAC-MAC merger???? Then you end up with the AQ conferences and two large non-AQ conferences

If that happens we have terrible presidents at the helms of our schools.

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Arkstfan Proficient

Arkstfan

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They can, but don't except in extreme circumstances. Temple was kicked out of the Big East for basically refusing to fund their football program at a D1 level. They have since started to support the program more.

UT-Pan Am was kicked out of the Sun Belt after being put on NCAA probation then trying to use that as an excuse to not fund their basketball and/or their baseball at a D1 level.

ULM is an interesting case. They aren't really funding at a level to produce a competitive teams in all sports at once. They are putting money into one sport at a time while reducing it to others. But, they didn't really want in the Sun Belt to begin with and joined as football only when La Tech tried to kill the idea of the Sun Belt sponsoring football. When NCAA rules required the Belt to have one more full member, again ULM stepped up when no one else would. Now that they are in, of course they don't want to go back down and I certainly don't blame them for that. They did what they were asked to do and now many want to punish them for stepping up when they weren't really ready.

And yes, I'm sure they could bring a suit. I'm not sure how far that would get or what the kind of publicity it would bring. Suits can cost far more than just money!

We actually did that with UNO and Denver passing membership standards and setting a deadline to meet them. UNO opted to drop down and Denver had the chance to go to the WAC before the deadline.

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