Should Wyoming join The Big Ea...I mean The Big National?

[DocHolliday]

Become a member of the newly formed Western Conference with this zany cross country league that still needs to change it's name before they launch anew?

Caveat: The Big National (formerly The Big East) will have a multi-year national television contract with NBCSports Network.

Personally I'd rather see teams like SMU, Houston, Memphis and Central Florida, East Carolina coming to Laramie, while still maintaining ties to Boise State and SDSU as well...rather than UNLV, New Mexico, Nevada, Hawaii, etc.

From a recruiting standpoint the argument could be made that the profile of UW Football would be well enhanced with such a move.

The visibility in lieu of TV would be a HUGE inducement for me if I was Burman...would HATE to see Idaho gain the potential advantages of the increased visibility via TV while we have to continue watching a lot of games with online feeds.

Don't be so quick to dismiss the newly created 'BIG National', and what it could mean from a positive angle for UW Football.

Thoughts?

 

[AfiPoke]

For me, I prefer our current conference mates. Games with the Big East crowd don't excite me. Additionally, I don't believe the revenue/exposure is going to be significantly better. The recruiting argument is possible but, IMHO it wouldn't be worth foregoing our history with these other schools.

It may be myopic but, I prefer to stick with our conference mates and I happen to like the trajectory of the incoming teams. I've never been much for defensive approaches but, we may be better served to ride this one out. As I've stated previously, I don't think PAC and SEC are done. Despite the ironclad contracts, the Big XII still looks vulnerable to me and could get poached.

We certainly didn't do ourselves any favors with our record this year. Talk about a weak bargaining position!

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Wicks]

The Big National would be a step up in terms of national exposure but such a move would never happen for two reasons.

1. All these conference moves are based on TV money projections (which I think are being way over valued for leagues outside the SEC, Big 10, Pac 12 and Big 12 they will never get anywhere close to those projections in terms of real money). Wyoming offers nothing to increase that TV revenue.

2. With Burman as our AD I do not think he would ever entertain the thought of playing in a league without CSU and Air Force. There are good reasons for that but I know for sure they do not feel the same way about us.

We are stuck where we are because the "leadership" of the Mountain West has done a horrible job in promoting the league in general. Honestly we were better off on ESPN, but BYU and Utah started bitching about TV money and thus the Mountain network was born and when it was clear it was not going to work those two rats jumped ship.

 

[Asmodeanreborn]

As has already been mentioned - why would this league want to take Wyoming? We haven't been a consistently "good" program since the 90s, and there's pretty much zero financial gain in terms of TV contracts to be had from adding the Wyoming fan base.

 

[COS Cowboy]

Not just no but Hell No! The only reason to do it would be for the TV money, and I just don't believe that's coming. The Big East in 2014 will be Conference USA from 2004 plus Temple, SUDS and Boise. If Conference USA was so valuable in 2004, why did they have a worse contract the 2004 MWC? Also, I highly doubt an invite is coming and if it did, it would probably be a football only invite ala SUDS and Boise. Do you really want to split up our sports like that?

 

[whyoh]

As has already been mentioned - why would this league want to take Wyoming? We haven't been a consistently "good" program since the 90s, and there's pretty much zero financial gain in terms of TV contracts to be had from adding the Wyoming fan base.

enter....tulane

 

[Bryoming]

It would probably be good in the short term for the program if an invite came Wyoming's way, but it would absolutely kill our attendance. I, for one, love watching our games against CSU, Air Force, New Mexico, and Hawaii because they've been our rivals for a long time, and (with the exception of Hawaii) are easy away game destinations.

This fan values tradition over money. I know that money drives the bus, but there is a point where selling out will do more harm than good.

 

[fromolwyoming]

No.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Dumb hypothetical. Honestly, not sure why I am responding.


(1) Wyoming would not get an invite unless the entire MWC was invited.

(2) SMU, Houston, Memphis and Central Florida, East Carolina??? WTF ... want to see empty stands, then just abandon our games with CSU, AF, UNM, etc...not to mention the ridiculous travel

 

[Lost Poke]

We are stuck where we are because the "leadership" of the Mountain West has done a horrible job in promoting the league in general. Honestly we were better off on ESPN, but BYU and Utah started bitching about TV money and thus the Mountain network was born and when it was clear it was not going to work those two rats jumped ship.

We were definitely not going to be better off on ESPN. ESPN was going to renew the MWC contract for a pittance, and we were going to be playing football every single weekday. The conference walked from that with the CSTV deal, which should have paid more but it all went to hell when CBS bought CSTV. ESPN turned around and gave the same TV deal they were proposing to us to the WAC, and you can see where that ended up.

 

[WYCowboy]

We are stuck where we are because the "leadership" of the Mountain West has done a horrible job in promoting the league in general. Honestly we were better off on ESPN, but BYU and Utah started bitching about TV money and thus the Mountain network was born and when it was clear it was not going to work those two rats jumped ship.

We were definitely not going to be better off on ESPN. ESPN was going to renew the MWC contract for a pittance, and we were going to be playing football every single weekday. The conference walked from that with the CSTV deal, which should have paid more but it all went to hell when CBS bought CSTV. ESPN turned around and gave the same TV deal they were proposing to us to the WAC, and you can see where that ended up.

This!!!!!!!! :agree:

 

[Fullback41]

I think the ESPN deal worked out pretty well for the best team in the WAC, it seems to have been a good thing for Boise St.

just saying...

 

[BJC]

The weekday games ad much needed exposure and the kids like a national stage...... why not.....be better than trying to catch a streaming radio feed

 

[Lost Poke]

I think the ESPN deal worked out pretty well for the best team in the WAC, it seems to have been a good thing for Boise St.

just saying...

Well, I think you can argue that BSU's success is in spite of the WAC ESPN contract. They certainly got no money from it. They jumped to the MWC at the first opportunity and gave up the ESPN games.

 

[Lost Poke]

The weekday games ad much needed exposure and the kids like a national stage...... why not.....be better than trying to catch a streaming radio feed

Yes, but have you seen the stands on those mid-week games? They usually are nearly empty. That represents a huge loss to the host school. This doesn't include the challenges to keeping players academically eligible when they miss Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday classes for a Tuesday night game.

 

[Wyo2dal]

We are stuck where we are because the "leadership" of the Mountain West has done a horrible job in promoting the league in general. Honestly we were better off on ESPN, but BYU and Utah started bitching about TV money and thus the Mountain network was born and when it was clear it was not going to work those two rats jumped ship.

We were definitely not going to be better off on ESPN. ESPN was going to renew the MWC contract for a pittance, and we were going to be playing football every single weekday. The conference walked from that with the CSTV deal, which should have paid more but it all went to hell when CBS bought CSTV. ESPN turned around and gave the same TV deal they were proposing to us to the WAC, and you can see where that ended up.

The MWC screwed itself with it's TV system. The Mtn Network was before it's time and had they just thought bigger and better to reach out to other providers and market it all across the US instead of Marketing it in such a small area it would be huge today.

Financial partnership with CBS and Comcast was our issue they obviously didn't care about the partnership or care to ante up any money as you could see that by the broadcast quality. They tried to start up the network for pennies on the dime and in the end that is exactly what did them in. They cut too many corners and nailed their own coffin shut.

But ESPN was a laughable contract they didn't care about the MWC anymore than they care about any non BCS conferences. Media Market drives college Football more than anything today and Wyoming is not a media market.

 

[Fullback41]

I think the ESPN deal worked out pretty well for the best team in the WAC, it seems to have been a good thing for Boise St.

just saying...

Well, I think you can argue that BSU's success is in spite of the WAC ESPN contract. They certainly got no money from it. They jumped to the MWC at the first opportunity and gave up the ESPN games.

Good point, you could argue that. Not being a BSU expert, I can see arguments each way... sadly the blue field may have more to do with the recruiting success than the ESPN exposure.... the only ones that would really know are the recruiting co-ordinators at BSU. Of course, a history of success sure helps and they have been winning football games ever since the were a community college which was not that long ago... meteoric rise to relevance in the national football stage... amazing what a long-term devoted focus on winning football games will do for ya.

 

[BeachPoke]

I think it had nothing to do with ESPN or Boise... You can plug what ever university in to it.. boise won a lot of games against very bad teams in the WAC... the capitialized on a OU team that did not take them serious. They lost and if Boise had not had a couple trick plays then thye would have lost....Start winning and kids willcome to play for you..

 

[Fullback41]

Really... you think neither ESPN coverage or Boise State's focus on football are responsible for their current status. It is all from beating bad teams and 1 lucky win vs Oklahoma? If that is the case we should be trying to get in the worst conference possible.

Boise St had to be doing something right to get enough talent to beat OU even if they did take them lightly. Boise St was smart enough to practice trick plays and be ready for any situation. You don't just beat top 10 teams in BCS bowl games by getting lucky, you have to be pretty decent, which doesn't come from beating up on bad teams alone.

Also it seems unlikely to think beating bad teams helped, but the fact they were beating them on ESPN didn't help?

They have only had 5 losing seasons in 44 years, the last one being in 1997. They have hosted football clinics for highschoolers from the West Coast for at least 20 years.

I agree that success builds interest, and that they racked up a lot of wins vs bad teams along the way. I can see that maybe they did it in spite of the ESPN deal, or with help from the ESPN coverage, but I can't believe it was from neither their effort, or the coverage, and it is all based on easy schedules and trick plays against OU.

 

[BackHarlowRoad]

Start winning games and the talent will come to you, correct, so.....

...How do you win without talent? - THAT is the Wyoming dilemma.