More photos » Terry Gilliam - AP

It looks like Michigan and Ohio State will be in different divisions for football, but there's still a glimmer of hope the two schools will meet twice a year in hoops. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)

Browse more photos »

Football season kicks off tomorrow -- meaning we're about two months from the start of basketball. But the dying moments of the college sports offseason are more than enough time for a few more pieces of conference realignment info to make their way into the news. More on these after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Well, it appears As The Mountain West Turns has reached its conclusion. 

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the talk of BYU reconciling with the Mountain West Conference was a bit premature. 

Cougars to the WAC? Well, that's dead too. 

The Trib says BYU will play as an independent in football, with the bulk of their other sports headed to the West Coast Conference. 

For BYU's remaining sports, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation would be a logical home for men's and women's indoor track and women's swimming. However, the MPSF doesn't sponsor men's swimming, softball, and outdoor track and field. 

So, here's how the MWC, WAC, and WCC will look in the coming seasons, probably as soon as the 2011-12 academic year, when BYU is slated to depart the Mountain West.

Mountain West
Air Force
Boise State
Colorado State
Fresno State
Nevada
UNLV
New Mexico
San Diego State
TCU
Wyoming

West Coast
BYU
Gonzaga
Loyola Marymount
Pepperdine
Portland
Saint Mary's
San Diego
San Francisco
Santa Clara

Western Athletic
Hawai'i
Idaho
Louisiana Tech
New Mexico State
San Jose State
Utah State

The WAC is really in trouble because it will lose its basketball auto bid if it doesn't pick up a seventh members before the 2013-14 academic year begins and the NCAA's two-year grace period expires.

And that doesn't account for Hawai'i potentially declaring its football independence and finding another home for its other sports.

Or Utah State realizing its dream by joining the MWC to make up for the loss of BYU and Utah.

Plus, there's the whole matter of the $5 million WAC exit penalty. Apparently, that's a simple case of "No BYU, No Fee." Fresno State and Nevada, you should be off the hook...after the courts speak, of course.

So, there's a bit more certainty in the conference landscape for the moment, don't expect it to last. Members of the Big Sky, Conference USA, and Sun Belt could all be on the move in the inevitable next round, as the Mountain West and WAC try to recover from BYU's choice.

More photos » Tony Gutierrez - AP

Dave Rose still doesn't know if he's going to be coaching in the WAC or Mountain West. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Browse more photos »

Before I get to a long list of schedule links, it's time to recap at the latest chapter of As The Mountain West Turns...

The Denver Post reported that BYU would announce that they were going to make up with the MWC Thursday; however, it's now Friday afternoon and there's been no official announcement.

At Mountain West Connection, Jeremy Mauss has a post detailing "The Project" that was supposed to bring BYU to the WAC in all sports and how MWC commissioner Craig Thompson threw a boulder to those plans by inviting Fresno State and Nevada.

With the WAC's future up in the air, the third school Thompson invited, Utah State, has reapplied in an attempt to be the MWC's 12th team. Opinion among MWC fans seems to favor Houston or UTEP over the Aggies, however.

Adrian Mac, editor of SBN's UTEP blog Miner Rush, made an interesting comment in that Utah State post regarding how the mindset of MWC's membership has changed in the span of a decade.

Just insane that 10 years ago the MWC formed and it's already changed to the point where they have to add teams the original members blamed for the demise of the WAC (like Fresno). Back then, BYU & Others were upset that the WAC had been watered down and that it was spread too far - into Texas. Now, the MWC is also adding teams that never would have been added to the WAC had the original MWC 8 never left to begin with (namely the Big West's Boise, Utah State, Nevada- 1999).

Hawai'i, meanwhile, is still contemplating football independence. In terms of a home for its other sports, ESPN's Andy Katz reported that the university is discussing moving all of the other Warrior/Wahine teams to the Big West, not the West Coast Conference as rumored.

That's because the WCC wants to remain a league of smaller, church-sponsored schools, and Hawai'i is decidedly neither. On the other hand, the Big West's grouping of University of Califiornia and California State University campuses (with one private school, Pacific, thrown in for good measure) would be a better fit from an institutional standpoint, though travel could be a sticking point.

Ferd Lewis of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser writes that no matter what conference Hawai'i calls home, intercollegiate athletics will likely become a more expensive proposition for the university, even if it stays in a newly-expanded WAC,

Call them travel subsidies, stipends or guarantees, the fact is it is going to be tough to find anybody willing to regularly put their soccer, tennis, swimming, golf or softball teams on planes here without some help.

Schools in California have been cutting sports, so they aren't going to welcome the expenses of UH membership with open arms. An open wallet by UH, perhaps.

The scary thing is that UH, which does not currently pay travel subsidies in the WAC, could find itself forced to ante up even if it stays put. That's if it expects to have any company in the WAC.

In short, there are still a few decisions to be made to close out this latest round of realignment.

The good news is we're one week away from football season, which means basketball season is that much closer to tipping off. After the jump, I have a very long list of schedule links for your weekend.

Continue reading this post »

More photos » Eugene Tanner - AP

Hawai'i met St. Mary's in the Diamond Head Classic last December. Might the Warriors and Gaels be conference rivals in the near future? Reports suggest its a possibility. (AP Photo/Eugene Tanner)

Browse more photos »

Editor's Note: A couple of thoughts popped into my mind overnight and I've added them to this post.

The WAC's future continues to be in doubt today, as they wait on BYU, and potentially Hawai'i, to determine its next move. Meanwhile, the Mountain West continues to explore its options. More after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Over at Mountain West Connection, there's been some talk today about the state of the WAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. 

Since this topic has already come up (Andy Katz made brief mention of it in the sidebar to an ESPN story.), I wanted to explain the auto bid rules for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament for everyone, since they aren't that easy to fins on the Internet. Follow me past the jump for more.

Continue reading this post »

More photos » Tony Gutierrez - AP

BYU has been a regular NCAA Tournament team of late, but they'll have to work harder to make the Dance if they head to the WAC. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Browse more photos »

Earlier today, Brigham Young University's intentions to move from the Mountain West Conference back to the Western Athletic Conference in all sports but football became public.

I'll have more on this move, it's impact on basketball, and the Mountain West's countermove after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

If you haven't noticed, I've been strangely quiet on the seismic shift in the intercollegiate landscape that is happening right before our eyes. This is primarily because football is the driving factor (and basketball and the non-revenue sports are barely getting a passing mention at this point) and partially because I've had a lot of work to do before leaving for vacation on Wednesday. 

After the dust settles a little better, I'll be posting a bit more on the after effects on basketball scheduling and the NCAA Tournament, as well as any other moves that could impact conferences more famous for hoops than gridiron. (A trickle-down is definitely possible if the Big East is impacted significantly.) 

In the meantime, I'd like to direct you to all of the great SB Nation blogs who have been on top of these stories since the beginning, so you can visit them frequently over the next week-plus as things shake out. More after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

The four main state schools in the Dakotas were among the many to make the jump from Division 2 to Division 1 before the NCAA enacted a moratorium on D1 expansion in August 2007.

North Dakota State and South Dakota State made the jump first, making their D1 debuts in 2004.  You may remember that the Bison made it through the transition period this year and qualified for the NCAA Tournament at the first attempt and gave Kansas a mighty scare in round one.

The Bison and Jackrabbits' main in-state rivals made the jump in 2008 after much gnashing of teeth.  UND and USD replaced NDSU and SDSU in the Great West Conference.  This move was originally for football only; however, just about a year ago, the Great West decided to become an all-sports league.  In the process, most of the remaining independent schools jumped in.

The name "Great West" makes sense for the five-team football league, which includes UND, USD, Cal Poly and UC-Davis from the Big West, and Southern Utah from the Summit. However, it's a bit deceiving for the all-sports league, which includes these members and affiliates:

• Utah Valley (OK, they're pretty far West)
• North Dakota and South Dakota (still West of the Mississippi)
• Houston Baptist and Texas-Pan American (If the WAC can have teams in Texas, this is fine.)
• Chicago State (This is stretching it.  And they left the Summit for this?)
• NJIT (You've lost me with this one.  But I guess schools that rarely win basketball games can't be choosers.)
• Delaware State, Howard, and South Carolina State are soccer affiliates (Again, not much Western about these schools.  I suppose they're West of Bermuda, but does that count?)
• NYIT (again, West of Bermuda) and Northern Colorado (OK, definitely Western) are baseball affiliates

Not that conference affiliation will mean much for Great West schools for a few years, as the NCAA won't recognize a new Division 1 conference until after the moratorium expires for the 2011-12 school year.  That means no auto bids for the foreseeable future.

You can't imagine that a conference with such a geographically-diverse membership will last in these economic times.  Add in the fact that these schools aren't among the high earners in Division 1, and you have a conference that's bound to be a transitional spot for schools new to the top level.  Additionally, because of NCAA rules regarding automatic qualification for the NCAA Tournament, one of the biggest reasons to be in a conference at this point, the Great West won't receive an auto bid until 2020.  So, you can rest assured that you'll be seeing news about schools leaving and joining the Great West over the next several years.

Or even this year.  Back in April,  The Summit League announced USD as its 11th member.  There was no word on team number 12, however.  Logically, you'd think that UND would be the perfect addition, considering the presence of the other three main Dakota schools.  

However, one major factor stands in the way of the Fighting Sioux's entry, their very nickname.  The Summit League will not consider UND's application for admission until the nickname issue is resolved.  In May, the North Dakota Board of Higher Education voted for the nickname to be retired if the school couldn't get a 30-year agreement on its use from two Sioux tribes before October 1. The Spirit Lake Sioux have approved, for now. while the Standing Rock Sioux have yet to make a decision.  The nickname decision could also have a major impact on UND's hockey program, which plays in Ralph Engelstad Arena.  Engelstad threatened to pull funding for the arena when the topic of a nickname change came up in 2000, and the building currently features thousands of images of the Fighting Sioux logo.

Complicating matters for UND is the fact that they aren't the only school attempting to become the Summit's 12th member institution.  Utah Valley, another Great West member, has a good chance because they solve one of the conference's longstanding issues, Southern Utah's travel partner.  The league could also divide into two six-team divisions just as easily with the UVU's entry as they would with UND.  

South Dakota will enter the Summit for the 2011-12 academic year.  North Dakota may be able to join them on that timeline if they get their nickname issue resolved quickly.  If it's not, they could be looking at an extended stay in the Great West or return to Divsion 2.

However, all may not be lost for UND if things drag out. Centenary College in Shreveport, one of the more far-flung members in the Summit, is considering a move to Division III, thanks to the economy and a lack of viable Division I conference options.

Stay tuned.

In other conference news, Campbell will be returning to the Big South in the 2011-12 academic year.  The Camels were a member of the Big South from 1983 to 1994 before moving to the Atlantic Sun, which was then known as the Trans-America Athletic Conference.