Lehigh Football Nation
March 9th, 2011, 12:49 PM
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/utsa/2011/03/latest-wac-non-news-2/
The most recent round of rumors, stemming from several sources (one of which is Facebook, so take it with a boulder of salt), has Lamar jumping from the FCS and Utah Valley and Seattle joining as non-basketball members. There’s also something floating around that UT-Arlington, of all schools, is considering adding football in order to make the jump. So if we’re keeping track at home, about half the Southland Conference has been connected to the WAC in some form or fashion.
I haven’t gathered nearly enough info to either definitively confirm or shoot anything down. But I did get a pretty lukewarm response regarding the Southland schools from my most dependable source, a senior member of a WAC athletic department regular readers will recognize as Deep Snap.
That would seemingly leave the FCS, where two Big Sky Conference sources recently told me they’d be somewhere between surprised and shocked if any of its schools left, including Montana and Montana State. Then there’s Lamar, which D.S. said was mentioned only in passing at the San Antonio meeting.
“Lamar was discussed, but the decision was made to hold off on that for now and start with the FBS schools,” D.S. said.
One report indicated that Lamar had some sort of contact with the WAC last fall in Dallas, but that was one thing Benson made a definitive comment on during our conversation. “They did not make any presentation,” he said.
I have no idea if the Western has indeed moved on to Plan B. But Southland commissioner Tom Burnett said Friday that Benson has agreed to notify him if and/or when any of his schools come under serious consideration. While acknowledging anything is possible, he said that has yet to happen.
“No conversation I’ve had (with Benson or any member schools) to any degree makes me believe we’ll have an additional membership issue in the future,” Burnett said. “I qualify that, as always, by saying things could change as soon as tomorrow. But for the time being, Karl hasn’t given me any indication that’s going to happen.”
D.S. also doubts anything conclusive has been decided, with Lamar or anyone else, noting that nothing has been brought to the WAC athletic directors yet.
While the "interest" might be lukewarm, to me the news is that Lamar is indeed on the radar of the WAC.
The most recent round of rumors, stemming from several sources (one of which is Facebook, so take it with a boulder of salt), has Lamar jumping from the FCS and Utah Valley and Seattle joining as non-basketball members. There’s also something floating around that UT-Arlington, of all schools, is considering adding football in order to make the jump. So if we’re keeping track at home, about half the Southland Conference has been connected to the WAC in some form or fashion.
I haven’t gathered nearly enough info to either definitively confirm or shoot anything down. But I did get a pretty lukewarm response regarding the Southland schools from my most dependable source, a senior member of a WAC athletic department regular readers will recognize as Deep Snap.
That would seemingly leave the FCS, where two Big Sky Conference sources recently told me they’d be somewhere between surprised and shocked if any of its schools left, including Montana and Montana State. Then there’s Lamar, which D.S. said was mentioned only in passing at the San Antonio meeting.
“Lamar was discussed, but the decision was made to hold off on that for now and start with the FBS schools,” D.S. said.
One report indicated that Lamar had some sort of contact with the WAC last fall in Dallas, but that was one thing Benson made a definitive comment on during our conversation. “They did not make any presentation,” he said.
I have no idea if the Western has indeed moved on to Plan B. But Southland commissioner Tom Burnett said Friday that Benson has agreed to notify him if and/or when any of his schools come under serious consideration. While acknowledging anything is possible, he said that has yet to happen.
“No conversation I’ve had (with Benson or any member schools) to any degree makes me believe we’ll have an additional membership issue in the future,” Burnett said. “I qualify that, as always, by saying things could change as soon as tomorrow. But for the time being, Karl hasn’t given me any indication that’s going to happen.”
D.S. also doubts anything conclusive has been decided, with Lamar or anyone else, noting that nothing has been brought to the WAC athletic directors yet.
While the "interest" might be lukewarm, to me the news is that Lamar is indeed on the radar of the WAC.