(10-15-2022 12:01 PM)Poster Wrote: I thought the WAC was usually better than, or at least on par with Conference USA. The WAC got three BCS bids to C-USA's zero.
The WAC tried to become an FCS callup league in the early 2010s, but this strategy only worked for one year (2012) before the WAC was forced to fold its football conference altogether.
The pre-1996 WAC sans UTEP became the Mountain West. Fresno State and Hawaii didn't make the cut in 1999, but eventually were reunited with the historical core of the WAC. UTEP would of course head to C-USA.
Only three of the 1996 additions (TCU, SMU, Rice, Tulsa, UNLV, San Jose State) would join the MWC, and TCU punched a P5 ticket. The other SWC schools and Tulsa wound up in C-USA.
The WAC and Sun Belt killed off Big West football after the 2000 season with Boise State heading to the WAC; and NMSU, Utah State, Idaho, North Texas, and Arkansas State heading to the Sun Belt. Utah State and Boise State of course wound up in the MWC. New Mexico State and Idaho did not.
So basically Big West football died twice - once as the Big West, once as the WAC. The second time Arkansas State and North Texas just happened to be replaced by Texas State and UTSA.
The Big West struggled to get schools in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones to move up to I-A/FBS. It got Nevada, Boise State, and Idaho, but most of the Big Sky was not willing and able to move up. The same fate eventually befell the WAC.
Had the WAC only expanded to 12 in 1996 it would still be a FBS conference today. Nevada would have likely replaced either UTEP in 2005 or TCU in 2012. Utah State and Boise State would have replaced BYU and Utah.