It wasn’t a surprise, nor was it a revelation.
California State University Bakersfield and Utah Valley University added to the Western Athletic Conference as non-football members was a long time coming — when conference expansion was first discussed and the WAC was looking to add schools, these two were brought up almost immediately.
Obviously for the WAC it was necessary additions. The league now has a shot at keeping its automatic qualifying bids into NCAA Tournaments.
For a full story on their inclusion, click here.
And, for a list of NCAA AQ requirements for non-football sports, see below:
• Men’s basketball: Requires seven members to retain bid. Will allow WAC two-year waiver period at six schools before league has to reach seven for 2015-16. League currently stands at six, assuming Idaho stays on board.
• Women’s basketball: Requires six members to retain bid, which league currently stands at.
• Volleyball: Requires six members to retain bid, which league currently stands at.
• Baseball: Requires six members to retain bid. Will allow WAC two-year waiver period at five schools before league has to reach six for 2016. Idaho and Denver do not have baseball programs. This year league will have affiliate members CSU Bakersfield and Dallas Baptist (before Dallas Baptist joins Missouri Valley Conference in 2014). The 2014 membership will consist of NMSU, Seattle, CSU Bakersfield (full-time member), Utah Valley and Sacramento State (affiliate member).
• Softball: Requires six members to retain bid. Will allow WAC a two-year waiver period at five schools before league has to get six for 2016. Idaho and Denver do not have softball programs. League would consist of NMSU, CSU Bakersfield, Utah Valley, Seattle. Need to add another for 2014 season to reach NCAA requirements.
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6 comments:
Oh boy.
These additions are like plugging a hole with bubble gum. The ship is taking water...FAST!
While it helps the scheduling for our olympic sports. NMSU needs to keep looking for a more stable conference.
These additions are just delaying the WAC's inevitable death.
The next NMSU president needs to bring in a new AD and both need to find us a new, more stable home.
Clueless Couture is gone and the current AD is pretty short sighted and has caused us a lot of grief.
Boston your days are numbered!
Scrapping the bottom of the barrel but NMS will just continue putting lipstick on the pig and attempt to convince their fans the the new WAC is on track to become a national power house.
Idaho and NMS need to swallow their pride and move to the Big Sky and rebuild.
I for one like the additions, and would hope that the WAC can get some lower division schools to move up for football somehow. It allows us to be competitive, which is what we desperately need. Everybody (especially LC fans) loves a winner, and if our FB was 6-2 people would come out even if it was against Northern Arizona. Joining the MWC with our lack of resources would surely lead to a ton of losses. As much as I love our BB team, we would be about the 5th best team in that conference. I'm ok with NMSU being in any conference as long as we don't move down a level. I just want us to win.
I love the upcoming weekend. The Aggie football will not lose, guaranteed. Excellent.
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