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What Mid-Major Conferences Win Out?

With all the mid major realignment soon to happen, the MWC, WAC, and CUSA are going to have to figure their stuff out.  With BSU, AFA, UCF, Houston, and SMU heading to the Big East the mid major world is going to be turned on it's head for a few months.  Rumors have surfaced that BSU has not been able to consider the WAC an option for their non-football sports because The Hair has threatened that if BSU and AFA leave the MWC he'll be inviting Utah State and San Jose to the conference.  Things haven't even happened and it already looks ugly.  I really hate that guy btw..

I have to come out and say that I feel bad for Nevada and Fresno State in all this...  Maybe I shouldn't, they'll be able to compete for conference championships in the MWC now (well Fresno has a way to go...) but we were the ones that coaxed them along and they forked out the big bucks to leave the WAC as soon as they could and follow us into the MWC.  Now they won't even arrive in the MWC before we leave (if we make lemonade out of the lemon TCU left us and immediately bolt out of the MWC for $5 Million).  What do ya'll think will happen to these guys?  I think most of us would hope that Karl Benson could get some momentum and shred the MWC, give Fresno and Nevada their exit fees back and make all right in the world (getting rid of Craig Thompson).  With nothing to back it up and all this predicated on things that have yet to be announced I'd like to offer my suggestions to Karl about the future of the American Mid Major.  With this all based on no concrete evidence of these things actually happening and some of it based on pure speculation (that something like this could even legally happen), here's my vision:

1WAC

I don't know about the rest of you but I like Karl Benson.  Sure, he was a little fired up when we came back for our friends and his conference was heading straight into a whirlpool being fanned by the hair evil nemesis Craig Thompson but I think he's always looked out for BSU.  Being Boise State Alum, I think he knew BSU had to move on eventually to continue to grow.  So with my bias I naturally want the WAC to win out and survive.

So this is what I suggest to Karl, give the CUSA a call. Explain to CUSA commissioner Britton Banowsky the grave mistake he's made to get in bed with the MWC in a cross country alliance. If The Hair convinced Banowsky this would keep BSU, Houston, UCF, and SMU from bolting tell Banowsky he can forget about this even being in the realm of possibility. Legally I don't think CUSA is bound to the MWC quite yet, especially if the conferences lose teams. Then again, I've only taken one college law class... I'm assuming CUSA can turn it's back from this deal. This deal btw is just another evidence of Craig Thompson's incompetence, always reacting, never with a vision great enough to allow the MWC to excel. I realized he had vision problems when he rejected BSU's bid to join the MWC in 2005 but at this point we've got a laundry list of bad decisions and late moves. After Karl's meeting, CUSA commissioner realizes he's gotten himself and his conference into one big mess and is willing to work things out (this is imperative for the WAC's survival, to kill the MWC).

Conference alignments and invites begin. The WAC reaches out to Nevada and Fresno State first, offering them the $5 Million in exit fees they'd paid the year before if they'll come back. Nevada and Fresno State, left behind in the MWC by BSU, weighs the options and jumps back in bringing UNLV with them. At this point San Diego State, Colorado State, Wyoming and New Mexico see the writing on the wall and jump in too. This creates two divisions in the WAC. You could call the Coastal division the Leaders Division and the Inland Division the Legends of Crapiness on the Football Field Division. Divisions would be a little unequal when it came to football but I think Utah State is on the rise and they're dumping a lot of money into their program. This might also allow Idaho to have some more success, not that I really want that..

Now take a look at all this in other sports (specifically basketball). Remember, in an effort to save themselves the WAC invited a few schools to the conference (Seattle, Denver, and UT Arlington. They also invited a couple other texas football schools but in my vision I see them going to the CUSA.). Originally I wanted recommend that the WAC pick up Utah Valley University because UVU has a great Baseball team and fits perfect into the geographical structure of the new WAC but because the conference would already have an even number of teams I left them out. I forgot one edit however! When you read Utah Valley under Other Sports: Inland Division replace it in your mind with Colorado State, thanks. Idaho to Texas is going to be a little rough but considering they won't have to go to Hawaii anymore I think it equals out. Basketball-wise this would be a legit conference. In the Coastal Division you have SDSU and UNLV battling it out with fairly decent competition while Inland you have Utah State, New Mexico and Colorado State duking it out with decent competition in Wyoming, Idaho, and NMSU. Not only would competition and conference championships be great but geographically it really does make sense.

So what happened to LaTech and new WAC invitees Texas State and UT San Antonio you ask? Lets look at the new CUSA!

New CUSA

OK yes, it looks a little more watered down than the WAC. I like Karl Benson and the WAC, even moreso after all of the MWC trespasses, and I don't really care or know much about the CUSA so they got the shaft a little bit. Then again, they could be losing three teams to this Big East deal, beggars can't be choosers!

After realizing that working with the MWC just wasn't going to work, CUSA invites FBS newcomers and previous WAC invitees Texas State and UT San Antonio and nabs LaTech (I did this really fast and should have replaced Sam Houston with LaTech) from the WAC, with Benson's approval. CUSA creates a West Division (A Texas heavy division) and an East Division (typo on the graphic, sorry!) with other current CUSA members.

Football-wise I see this new CUSA and the new WAC pretty even. I see Tulsa as perennial favorites with opportunities for teams like Rice, UTEP, LaTech and newcomer Texas State to grow into competition. The East would be the dominating half of the league with Southern Miss and ECU leading the pack.

With all these moves the WAC and CUSA are taken care of and Karl Benson gets to throw his right hook and knock out Craig Thompson and the MWC.

I think this is a great plan for both conferences, of course I was the one that spent my time creating this and therefore think it's the best thing I've come up with since the time I had a thing of Nutella in one hand and peanut butter in the other, alternating scoops between the two. What do you all think? Am I the only one that would prefer the WAC beating out the MWC? Give me your thoughts and help me justify the hour+ I spent on this!

GO BRONCOS!

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