Where is it now? 10 basketball and 9 football assuming NIU jumps? I hope it stays there. 18 game hoops and 8 game football round robin.
New MWC Possibility:
- Thread starter nattybry
- Start date
I also think that’s ideal. I’ve been good with all the moves except for UC Davis Basketball. I don’t think that’s was the best choice Basketball wise and didn’t really get it. Better choices for basketball…. St. Mary’s (probably) no interest from their side though, San Francisco, Santa Clara, UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach, Seattle, etc…
You should be happy the UC Davis is there as they can join UTEP at the bottom. As it stands all the rest of the teams are better.
I would think that the other teams in the MWC would be saying the same thing about UTEP joining as they have not exactly been powerful in football or basketball for the last few years.
UC Davis has a large student population and is an academically prestigious institution. That doesn’t matter to you and I, but it does to school presidents.
They also have football, which none of those other schools you mentioned have. Even though they aren’t moving up at the moment, doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Is A10 better than MWC ? Loyola only playing in like 3 ESPN 2 games this season . I'm sure MWC could get better TV deal for them than that. With Northern Illinois joining and if they join in basketball later. Would give Northern Illinois a travel partner.
How would it give N. Illinois a travel partner Fili can you answer that for us??? N. Illinois is coming in as a Football Member only!
Well it’s basically official as of this morning that N. Illinois Football is joining. I say the MTN West should stay put for now. Perfect number for both sports and the TV Money split will be higher. Let’s see what Utep does with the Quadruple or more income boost! Hopefully donors like the Hunts keep donating to help Utep get to the next level. I know many don’t believe in Walden, but I believe we will see dividends as early as next year and the true pay off the year after of his recruiting efforts! I know the shine has worn off a little after the announcement, but be happy Miner Fans we are where most of us wanted for be albeit a watered down version.
MWC Football:
UTEP, UNM, SJSU, Nevada, UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force, Hawaii, N. Illinois
MWC Basketball:
UTEP, UNM, SJSU, Nevada, UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force, Hawaii, GCU, UC Davis
MWC Football:
UTEP, UNM, SJSU, Nevada, UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force, Hawaii, N. Illinois
MWC Basketball:
UTEP, UNM, SJSU, Nevada, UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force, Hawaii, GCU, UC Davis
It's clearly a watered down MWC, but it's not the C-USA, which has never been a good fit. My hope is that we hear more news about additional gifts like the Hunt Family Foundation. It's been a long time since we've seen a strong commitment by major donors publicly. Heck, we had trouble drumming up enough support for a proper training table. Let's hope those days are in the rear-view mirror.
I'm not sure UTEP has a true training table yet, based on some of the comments from the coaches and players. Also, Senter and Wilson have mentioned the budgetary discrepancy between UTEP and most of the schools left in the MWC ($10-15M). So their job goes beyond the one time large booster contributions (which are great), but developing a plan for funding the athletic department at a much higher level on an annual basis.
I strongly disagree about that. When UTEP joined CUSA; Memphis, Houston, SMU, Rice, Tulsa, Tulane, UAB, and Southern Miss were there. UCF, ECU, and Marshall too, but I couldn’t care less if they were there.
The problem was, UTEP couldn’t compete, especially in football and most of them moved on within 10 years. If we had remained in the WAC, it’s possible we may have been in the MWC earlier, but chances are we would still be in the MWC in 2026. If we can’t compete in watered down CUSA, we would have been at the bottom in the MWC all these years too.
The reason it wasn't a good fit was because we've NEVER had a solid financial commitment from the students, administration, alumni and donors, much less the geographic challenges that were there from the very beginning, even with those other programs.
I don’t believe that at all. You can make that argument right now, but not 20 years ago. I would bet that in 2005 and 2006, UTEP attendance and season ticket sales were at its peak. When Floyd got hired, I would also bet basketball season ticket sales were high as well.
Those geographic challenges weren’t an issue in 2010 when UTEP went 15-1 in CUSA. I think the women won two CUSA basketball titles too.
UTEP’s only challenge is hiring crappy coaches who couldn’t get it done and then keeping them way too long, driving away fans.
UTEP did compete. Mike Price blew a late season game sending Tulsa to the CUSA championship and Kragthorpe career skyrocketing off to Louisville. Anyways, they were competing because they were in the hunt in the division and fell short. It was gut punching.....no heart wrenching. UTEP lost their great defensive coordinator and never could recover that mojo that Price captured with Nord recruits. Those were some of the best players I have seen in thirty years. They did compete.
I know, I know, you're rebuttal will be, "but they lost". You said they "didn't compete". That is false.
Yeah, UTEP football competed for 1 year in CUSA and then hasn’t come close to that in the following 19 years. Thanks for proving my point.
That's for when they join as basketball as well. Are the Mac going to let them stay just for basketball?? I bet they kick them out, and where do they go now? That's where MWC comes in invite them for basketball and send invite to Loyola Chicago.
Curious to see what comes of the lawsuit (I'm thinking some sort of settlement)
Of course. The Pac 12 teams won’t be paying nearly as much as the MWC wants them to, but they still will pay a significant amount.
