How Conferences Die: Losers of Football’s Economic Game

Members of the San Jose State, Utah State, Idaho, Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State athletic departments must all be thinking the same thing.

“This? AGAIN?!”

The four were all members of the Big West Conference when it dissolved in 2000, but all found refuge in the Western Athletic Conference — eventually. New Mexico State had a short stint in the Sun Belt before reconvening with its former Big West mates in 2005. Today, their current home made a move that would reinforce months of speculation. The WAC’s days hosting football look numbered.

Seattle University is the latest member of the WAC. Just one problem — SU doesn’t have a football program, nor is there any plan to institute football. In fact, every university that pitched its membership case today lacks football: Utah Valley, Cal State Bakersfield, and Seattle. Denver was added in November, yet another everything-but-football member. For those keeping score, that’s now nine universities on board for the 2012-2013 academic year as WAC partners, but just seven that play football: San Jose State, New Mexico State, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Texas State, Utah State, and UT-San Antonio. The conference’s life support situation isn’t news. When Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii boarded life rafts upon Boise State’s departure, it became apparent commissioner Karl Benson would have to dig to maintain the league’s pulse.

The Championship Subdivision has a wealth of Western potential, but throughout last autumn it became increasingly apparent these avenues wouldn’t bear fruit. When I spoke with UC Davis head coach Bob Biggs about his program joining the FCS-affiliated Big Sky, he said the WAC was never even a consideration. Montana seemed a likely candidate. The Grizzlies are a national championship contender every season and routinely attract the most fans to home games among all the former Division I-AA. But when UM declined in November, things became dire. Further expansion into Texs seemed the solution. After all, Texas State and UT-San Antonio were coming on board, and the possibility of closer partners might make Louisiana Tech’s departure less inevitable.

Nothing ever came of those Texas expansion rumors. No Lamar, no Sam Houston State. Nothing. The lack of any football-carrying athletic departments having serious, public talks with the WAC would indicate this is the new Big West. The Big West continues on today with everything but football, and that’s what it needed to do to survive. The Big West’s football demise didn’t play out over a few months and string of bad news. The Big West’s downfall was a slow bleed out that began in the early 1990s. Not coincidentally, it was during a major recession and members Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State folded their programs. The remaining members scrambled to put something together, snatching away IAA programs Nevada-Reno (now simply Nevada), Idaho and Boise State. But the haste with which the Big West had to put something new together led to other conferences, WAC included, siphoning off members. Sound familiar?

BSU underwent arguably the greatest rise from IAA to IA powerhouse that anyone will ever witness, and Pat Hill guided Fresno State to national prominence. But by then, both were gone from the Big West, and so was Big West football.

Prospects for 2012, the WAC’s 2012first year without Hawaii, Fresno State and Nevada are already grim. Beyond having just seven members, including one (UTSA) the NCAA granted permissino to forego the usual transitional process, the WAC is losing the Hawaii Bowl with UH’s departure to the Mountain West and the Humanitarian Bowl’s fate is certainly in jeopardy. That leaves two postseason opportunities, as of now. Most likely the WAC will kickoff 2012 with just a single bowl invitation lined up. That postseason money going elsewhere means less revenue to entice FCS programs into the transition. Remember, playing FBS football means more scholarships and facility upgrades.

Should these next two years serve merely as the conference’s epilogue, the fate of the seven 2012 members is murky. La. Tech seems the most safe, with a natural spot in the Sun Belt just waiting once South Alabama joins. But for everyone else, there’s a lot of uncertainty.

The MWC already balked once at adding Utah State. San Jose State would make sense as a Big Sky member, both economically and to give that conference an even number of members (it will be at 13 when new additions UCD, Cal Poly, North Dakota, and Southern Utah come on board). Idaho would have to be another possibility for the Big Sky — the Vandals are former members and would make an obvious travel partner for Eastern Washington. New Mexico State could assume the position Texas State freed up in the Southland. But would any want to drop down to FCS? It may be the only option as none have budgets or profiles big enough to consider independence.

TSU and UTSA are in the most precarious positions. Both are joining FBS on the promise of having a conference with which to share revenue and guarantee games. Why, UTSA is just starting its program on this presumed future. Are their FBS memberships experiments doomed to fail, or will the Sun Belt expand to 13 or 14 teams?

These are all hypotheticals for the time being, but the lack of movement on football-playing schools is a troubling sign. The lucrative business of college football is only lucrative for a few, as its laissez-faire economics don’t translate into much of a trickle-down. The WAC’s struggles to compete with conferences boasting bigger television deals and thus more money is just one example. North Alabama voted to move to the FCS from Division II yesterday, a move that will come with a $7.5 million price tag, according to the Associated Press. The same AP report said UNA had lost over $8 million in revenue due to budget cuts in the last two years. But UNA is an athletic department in need of desperate measures with the Gulf South Conference suffering the fate the WAC wants to avoid.

The GSC is losing six univerisites, and the Lone Star Conference three. Those programs are banding together in an effort to reduce travel costs. In Division II terms, the GSC and LSC losing members is roughly equivalent to the Big Ten and SEC breaking apart. Another program that has had success, Nebraska-Omaha, sacrificed its football department to free up money for the hefty costs associated with becoming Division I. Ironically, UNO’s athletic director is a former standout at one of the most football-mad universities in the nation, Nebraska alum Trev Alberts.

Yes, there’s money to be made in college football, but at the risk of being overly cliche it’s an environment of haves and have-nots.