No use crying about what happened. Time to make the best of things moving forward. Obviously priority number 1 will be fixing our FB program, but priority 2 is ensuring UW involvement in intercollegiate athletics in a way that is competitive, additive to the UW experience, and as visible as possible to market the University (the last one is going to be tough).
With that said, there is still room for a MWC conference, and the league will have resources from the payouts to assist. As we look for candidates to join I believe we should avoid trying to expand for TV or some pie in the sky notion of earning the 5th AQ bid. Rather, focus on schools that share a vision and that will provide an opportunity to build long term rivalries and interest.
Primary targets should be regional FCS schools that are committed to athletics. Montana, Montana State, NDSU, SDSU, along with FBS UTEP and NMSU.
Avoid bringing in schools from Texas markets or large markets that are culturally very different. We never should have invited SDSU in 1978 or 1999. Having conference members that actively hate their conference peers (not like competitive hate, but serious personal dislike) is a recipe for failure.
Am I basically suggesting a bottom tier FBS version of the Big Sky? Yes, but that is way better than some poor man’s CUSA.
With that said, there is still room for a MWC conference, and the league will have resources from the payouts to assist. As we look for candidates to join I believe we should avoid trying to expand for TV or some pie in the sky notion of earning the 5th AQ bid. Rather, focus on schools that share a vision and that will provide an opportunity to build long term rivalries and interest.
Primary targets should be regional FCS schools that are committed to athletics. Montana, Montana State, NDSU, SDSU, along with FBS UTEP and NMSU.
Avoid bringing in schools from Texas markets or large markets that are culturally very different. We never should have invited SDSU in 1978 or 1999. Having conference members that actively hate their conference peers (not like competitive hate, but serious personal dislike) is a recipe for failure.
Am I basically suggesting a bottom tier FBS version of the Big Sky? Yes, but that is way better than some poor man’s CUSA.
