BYU reaches out to WCC; WAC remains in limbo; Idaho screwed

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News added a late night update to his blog with some new info on the MWC/WAC conference shakeup and BYU’s next moves.

First, there is the news that BYU has reached out to the West Coast Conference. The WCC doesn’t have football, so this would be the destination for BYU’s other sports if they go independent in football. The WCC is most well-known for mid-major basketball power Gonzaga, so adding BYU would be a coup. The religious makeup of the WCC (7 Catholic and 1 Protestant institution) is also a good fit for the LDS-affiliated BYU.

Second, Hawaii has reached out to the Big West (also a non-football conference, made up of all California schools) for its non football sports, as it also ponders independence in football.

Third, Utah State is talking with the Mountain West about membership, after turning down an initial offer last week in order to stay with the WAC (which it obviously assumed others would do as well). With the WAC falling apart (especially if Hawaii leaves too), they need somewhere to land, and the Mountain West would like to maintain a presence in Salt Lake City.

If BYU goes independent and Utah State joins the Mountain West, that puts the MWC back at 11. They will certainly push for a 12th member. Houston is a logical option. On the other hand, with Fresno State and San Diego State already in the conference, and the WAC collapsing, the Cal State system might push the Mountain West to pick up San Jose State either as the 12th or 13th member. Louisiana Tech has two potential landing spots, either the Sun Belt or Conference USA (especially if Houston leaves for the Mountain West).

That would leave Idaho and New Mexico State floating in the wind. Of the two, New Mexico State is in the best shape, as they are within spitting distance of some of the Sun Belt and Conference USA schools (New Mexico State is practically next door to UTEP).

Idaho is screwed. I mean seriously, where do they go? The Mountain West doesn’t want them, they are ridiculously far from any other conference, and independence would be rough. If I’m the Vandals, I’m lobbying the remaining WAC school as hard as possible to stick together, and hopefully pull off a few surprises of their own to stay alive.

What can the WAC do to stay afloat? With 6 teams, they can survive for a couple of years, but they need to get back up to 8 to keep their automatic bids to NCAA tournaments and such.

Possible Division I-A expansion targets would be UTEP, North Texas, Rice, SMU and Tulsa.

Possible Division I-AA targets would be UC-Davis, Cal Poly, Montana, UT-San Antonio (who will begin a football team in 2011 headed by former Miami coach Larry Coker).

If the WAC survives, I imagine it would trade UTEP for Louisiana Tech (with an NCAA exception for the 6 schools together rule) and pick up North Texas and a couple of I-AA schools (UT-San Antonio and one or both of the Cal schools).