Guys - UW is irrelevant. I am among the biggest fanboys of UW sports (with frequent negative comments borne out of frustration) but if you take off your brown and gold glasses, the reality is plain as day. We are more like South Dakota, SDSU, NoDak, NoDak State, Montana, Montana State, and Idaho (except we can't beat them) than most of our current conference mates - no less P4 schools. We can continue to hemorrhage cash to try to keep up, or we can be what we are - a meh Group of Whatever school or a mid to top tier FCS school. Our AD, admin, BOT and state have no stomach for being bold and taking risks. We don't have the eyeballs (sure the networks need content, but it won't compel the money that is required to do anything but die a slow death), we don't have the fanbase, we don't have the money (soon to be even more diminished when the flying monkeys in the Legislature are done), and we don't have the recent successes (wins) on the court or field to justify ourselves as a Gonzaga-like addition (sorry boys, the Barstool Slapstick Bowl doesn't matter a hill of beans) to a decent conference. We struggle to raise $307,000 for NIL for heaven's sake. We aren't players. We haven't been since the 80's, which even most Wyoming fans hardly remember. So which do you prefer: Group of Whatever or FCS? Them's the options.
I make no commentary on CSU, BSU, SDSU and Fresno other than to say, they are making a play to be slightly better than "meh" group of whatever teams.
