You have to read these articles on WAC expansion

PTW was at a tournament most of yesterday so we missed this from Sam Wasson/Bleed Crimson. It's a must-read about WAC expansion -- in fact, there are two links to pore over, here and here.

Sam also offers some Aggie recruiting tidbits in the latter.

Cassidy Creech and UTSA

This is from an email sent to us by Cassidy Creech:

So I´m very intrigued by the potential additions to the WAC across the board. I have heard some cautious skepticism regarding UTSA football... mainly because it isn't competing now. First off, their first recruiting class is officially redshirting now and are actually practicing and training now (per several media sources: news releases, etc.). While their initial plan has been to join the Southland Conference  (FCS...with Texas State, for example), where there other sports are competing, but that fell through. They then decided to go independent and attempt to join an FBS conference around the 2014 season. There's a lot to say about that plan, but what interests me the most about this is that when they decided to go independent, they immediately started filling a schedule for extended years. This schedule (1) could bring more opportunities to other WAC teams...at least exposure, and (2) will help plenty with strength of schedule (in football...and maybe, if we play our cards right, basketball too). It mostly shows the willingness of bigger schools to schedule multiple home-and-homes with UTSA, an unproven program, most likely because of its location, the Alamodome, and maybe even the expectations surrounding Larry Coker as head coach.

Here's the schedule Cassidy sent along (a number of present WAC teams should be envious):

2011

Sept. 3   Northeastern (Okla.) State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 10 McMurry San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 17 at Southern Utah Cedar City, Utah
Sept. 24 Bacone College San Antonio, Texas
Oct.  1  at Sam Houston State Huntsville, Texas
Oct.  8 South Alabama San Antonio, Texas
Oct. 15 at UC Davis Davis, Calif.
Oct. 22 at Northwestern State Natchitoches, La.
Oct. 29 Georgia State San Antonio, Texas
Nov. 12 at McNeese State Lake Charles, La.
Nov. 19 Minot State San Antonio, Texas

2012

Sept.  1  at South Alabama Mobile, Ala.
Sept.  8 Sam Houston State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 22 Northwestern Oklahoma State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 29 at Georgia State Atlanta, Ga.
Oct.  13 at Stephen F. Austin Nacogdoches, Texas
Oct.  20 Southern Utah San Antonio, Texas
Oct.  27 UC Davis San Antonio, Texas
Nov. 10 McNeese State San Antonio, Texas

2013

Sept. 7 Oklahoma State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 14  at Arizona Tucson, Ariz.
Sept. 28 Houston San Antonio, Texas
Nov. 2 at Virginia Charlottesville, Va.

2014

Aug. 30  at Houston Houston, Texas
Sept.  6 Arizona San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 13 at Oklahoma State Stillwater, Okla.
Sept. 27 at Kansas State Manhattan, Kan.
Nov.  8 Virginia San Antonio, Texas

2015

Sept.  5 at Arizona Tucson, Ariz.
Sept. 12 Kansas State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 19 at Oklahoma State Stillwater, Okla.
Sept. 26  at Louisiana Tech Ruston, La.
Oct.  3 Colorado State San Antonio, Texas

2016

Sept. 17 Arizona State San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 24 Louisiana Tech San Antonio, Texas
Oct.   1 at Colorado State Fort Collins, Colo.

2017

Sept.  9 at Baylor Waco, Texas
Sept. 30 at Colorado State Fort Collins, Colo.

2018

Sept. 1 at Arizona State Tempe, Ariz.
Sept. 8 Baylor San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 15 at Kansas State Manhattan, Kan.
Sept. 29 Colorado State San Antonio, Texas

2019

Sept. 7 at Baylor Waco, Texas

Montana AD Jim O'Day talks expansion

This is an October 1 reprint from The Missoulian featuring an email sent out by Jim O'Day the Montana AD:

 This is the full text of the Jim O'Day's e-mail

I understand your concerns – you are not alone. This is, perhaps, the most critical decision to ever face the intercollegiate athletic program at The University of Montana.

With state funding flat and student athletic fees holding tight, and with expenses growing year-by-year at a steady pace (at least $250,000 per year alone in just scholarship costs and related room/board costs for out student-athletes), we find ourselves at a cross roads.

With revenues presently capped at about $13 million per year, we are having to find ways to cut expenses… and one option may have to be scholarships to out-of-state student athletes if we cannot find new revenue sources.

We realize this could hurt our competitiveness as we cannot just take out of certain non-revenue generating sports because of Title IX issues.

In addition, our insurance continues to rise, as does rent and travel. We can assume our expenses will jump at least $500,000 annually… and really no new revenue to meet these increases. We have continued to cut our expenses about $250,000 or more per year for the past three years…. But now we are down to the bare bone. Any further cuts will affect programs. You can see that already – our entire budget for recruiting for all 14 sports is $178,000; at Montana State it’s $408,000 per the recently released NCAA audit numbers...

Go here for the remainder. 

Brian Murphy with more on WAC expansion plans

Brian Murphy
Idaho Statesman
10-01-10

Earlier this week, WAC commissioner Karl Benson outlined the league's expansion plans. The WAC heard from five schools — Texas State, UT-San Antonio, Montana, Seattle and Denver — about possible conference expansion. Benson said the league plans to do campus visits and extend invitations within 30 to 60 days. He also said those are the only five schools being considered at this time...

Go here for the remainder.

Tuesday's WAC ensemble

Hey, just when some positive news is needed...

Travis Mason-Bushman, who superbly covered Idaho athletics this season, has landed employment. Put another way, someone got right-minded and made a tremendous addition to the sports staff. Check out his tweets with the news:

http://twitter.com/VandalNation/status/16184184008

and

http://twitter.com/VandalNation/status/16184227779

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Sam Wasson is back with another feast of information about the WAC and possible directions to head. Go here and we thank Sam for going above and beyond by really digging into this subject.

One more a.m. item

Expansion is the word of the month right now in college athletics (hey, we've been working on expansion for years -- yes, going from one notch of the belt to the further one). But why no headlines about league and conference contraction? Oh yes, right, that's not news about those who matter.

However, Chris Murray writes about the possible effects on the WAC, with the jumping off point being a column by Dave Reardon.

Friday and the WAC

So who do you want in the WAC once the expansion/contraction smoke clears? It seems to be among Cal Davis, Cal Poly, Montana, Sacramento State, Portland State and Texas State. Teddy Feinberg has the details of Commish Karl Benson's trip to Las Cruces. 

We say forget Texas State unless a close-by companion also surfaces. The same goes with Montana.

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Chris Murray has more on the hoops court firm of George, Johnson and Babbitt and we're still abiding by our stand that says Babbitt goes before Johnson.

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Gib Arnold is trying to reach into Chicago and possibly middle America with his latest coaching hire. Dayton Morinaga has the scoop. 

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Any WAC coach wishing to add former BYU player Michale Loyd might wish to consider the young man is also prolific in another type of court.