The Bobcat Nation

Could set off a domino effect in the west. The Mountain West will have a lot of $$$ from exit fees to help get some new members going. Who will they recruit?

South Dakota State! Oh, nevermind the other SDSU…

UNLV leaving without UNR. Wonder how that would work out? Is it a different setup than CATS and gris?

RickRund wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2024 10:00 am

UNLV leaving without UNR. Wonder how that would work out? Is it a different setup than CATS and gris?

Nevada and UNLV were in different conferences until Nevada joined the Mountain West in 2012. Unless something has changed in the last decade it doesn't seem that they're necessarily tied together.

MSU01 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2024 7:49 pm

RickRund wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2024 10:00 am

UNLV leaving without UNR. Wonder how that would work out? Is it a different setup than CATS and gris?

Nevada and UNLV were in different conferences until Nevada joined the Mountain West in 2012. Unless something has changed in the last decade it doesn't seem that they're necessarily tied together.

MSU and UM were also in different conferences at one time. I suspect that similar to OSU and WSU getting left behind, money will be the key driver. But I will be surprised if Nevada doesn’t get an invite with UNLV. The population of Boise is very similar to Reno, and Fresno is a larger city, but still comparable to Reno. Heck, both Pullman and Corvallis are smaller than Reno.

Las Cruces (New Mexico State) is more comparable to Bozeman in size. I would think that New Mexico State, UNM and UTEP are better fits in the Sun Belt than even the Mountain West. There maybe a chance the Mountain West disolves if they don’t aggressively court teams.

I was curious and looked at the composition of teams in G5 conferences. Wow. What an eye opener. I hadn’t paid much attention to those conferences, but I bet close to 30% of G5 teams were FCS in the past 20 years. I actually think MSU would be competitive in all of them.

Cataholic wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2024 9:44 pm

MSU01 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2024 7:49 pm

RickRund wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2024 10:00 am

UNLV leaving without UNR. Wonder how that would work out? Is it a different setup than CATS and gris?

Nevada and UNLV were in different conferences until Nevada joined the Mountain West in 2012. Unless something has changed in the last decade it doesn't seem that they're necessarily tied together.

MSU and UM were also in different conferences at one time. I suspect that similar to OSU and WSU getting left behind, money will be the key driver. But I will be surprised if Nevada doesn’t get an invite with UNLV. The population of Boise is very similar to Reno, and Fresno is a larger city, but still comparable to Reno. Heck, both Pullman and Corvallis are smaller than Reno.

Las Cruces (New Mexico State) is more comparable to Bozeman in size. I would think that New Mexico State, UNM and UTEP are better fits in the Sun Belt than even the Mountain West. There maybe a chance the Mountain West disolves if they don’t aggressively court teams.

Seems to me that the sun belt is a long ways away from New Mexico. I think those schools fit better in the mountain west, at least geographically.

Long Time Cat wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 15, 2024 10:56 pm

Cataholic wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2024 9:44 pm

MSU01 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2024 7:49 pm

RickRund wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2024 10:00 am

UNLV leaving without UNR. Wonder how that would work out? Is it a different setup than CATS and gris?

Nevada and UNLV were in different conferences until Nevada joined the Mountain West in 2012. Unless something has changed in the last decade it doesn't seem that they're necessarily tied together.

MSU and UM were also in different conferences at one time. I suspect that similar to OSU and WSU getting left behind, money will be the key driver. But I will be surprised if Nevada doesn’t get an invite with UNLV. The population of Boise is very similar to Reno, and Fresno is a larger city, but still comparable to Reno. Heck, both Pullman and Corvallis are smaller than Reno.

Las Cruces (New Mexico State) is more comparable to Bozeman in size. I would think that New Mexico State, UNM and UTEP are better fits in the Sun Belt than even the Mountain West. There maybe a chance the Mountain West disolves if they don’t aggressively court teams.

Seems to me that the sun belt is a long ways away from New Mexico. I think those schools fit better in the mountain west, at least geographically.

Those three schools are kind of in the middle. The Sun Belt has a couple Texas schools that are a nice fit. But the Sun Belt has changed with North Texas moving. If you take away UNLV and Nevada, the MW is left with six schools: San Jose State, UNM, Wyoming, Utah State, Hawaii and Air Force.

You got me thinking though…. Add NM state and UTEP to the MW along with UTSA and Texas State and you have a nice southern division:

UNLV
Nevada
San Jose
UNM
NMSU
UTSA
Texas State
Hawaii

Add a couple FCS teams and you have a nice northern division:

Wyoming
Air Force
Utah state
MSU
UM
NDSU
SDSU
Idaho

The composition of that northern conference is appealing to me. Geographic rivalries exist in each division. Despite adding some smaller media markets, you are also adding a couple large markets as well with El Paso and San Antonio.

I am starting to think that the MW keeping UNLV, Nevada and San Jose State could be key to their survival. If you lose those three, then maybe Air Force joins the other service academies and UNM joins the SunBelt. MW is left with three teams: Wyoming, Utah State and Hawaii. All of a sudden the MW has to pillage the Big Sky and MVFC just to survive.