The sad part is, I don't think the Big Sky wants NMSU - they are so far from the rest of the conference it really doesn't help them. Even travel in the WAC would be slightly better, especially since just about every destination is in the same city or close to a major airport (Idaho is the clear outlier, but they aren't staying past 2014, although they are an easy travel partner with Seattle).

Even NMSU moving to the Southland destroys what is currently a bus league. Their closes conference opponent would be Abilene Christian, who is almost a 7.5 hour drive away - at least Grand Canyon is within a 6-hour drive within the WAC. In Division I NMSU at least has UNM and UTEP close by, and even Texas Tech is a shorter trip than Abilene Christian (Lubbock to Las Cruces is actually about 35-40 miles shorter than Las Cruces to Phoenix). In all honesty, I think the only reason ACU got in the Southland is that they have FCS football-if they didn't they'd certainly be in the WAC if they still went Division I.