PAC 10 may expand soon.

[UNLV]

"Pac 10 commish Larry Scott told KTAR-Phx the league will look into expansion in next 18 months."

Colorado and Utah frontrunners.

If true and this is mjy opinion...

BIG 12   invites Houston

MWC invites Boise st

WAC will be super screwed with no replacement canidates out West.

Who does CUSA take?   La Tech?  if so, further screwing the WAC

Does CUSA wants a sinking ship in La Tech?

A awful football program in UNT?

lol Texas st?

Wait years for UTSA to develope?

Who?

[Javelina]

I would take Boise State over Colorado if I was the Pac 10.  The Pac 10 needs a team like Boise State to Beef up their line up.  Right now the 10 is USC and the nine dwarfs!!  I seriously believe Boise could compete in the Pac 10.  But if they take Colorado I think TCU would be a better fit than UH.

[Guest coachacola]

I think academics is important to the Pac 10 so they wouldn't take Boise State because of that.  I did watch a little of their game the other night when they beat Oregon so they can compete against them but that blue field really is an eyesore.

[UNLV]

And don't forget Market size.

Hmmm, I didn't think about TCU...Maybe.

[BigRed44]

What would it take for the Southland to upgrade to FBS?  It would seem the logical thing if they don't want to start losing schools like Lamar, UTSA, Tx State etc.

[Guest coachacola]

I think there have been some behind the scenes talks about the SLC going FBS.  I don't think any of the Louisiana schools would be able to go FBS due to lack of money.  On another forum they've talked about the Texas schools breaking away and starting a FBS conference.  I think if the right 6 schools did that then they would keep their automatic bid to the NCAA basketball tourney.

I think Boise State and/or Fresno State will end up in the MWC which would really kill the appeal of the WAC.  If that happens then I could see La Tech and NMSU wanting to leave and maybe they would join up with the new SLC.  Maybe grab Oral Roberts to get another good basketball/baseball school in the conference.

[Rebel Yeller]

Before the Big 12 was formed the PAC 10 had its eye on Texas, but the powers that be would never have allowed that.

I do believe that the Super Conferences would welcome expansion and having east and west or north and south divisions. The money that is being paid for TV contracts is mind boggling and if all the big conferences had 16 teams with two divisions they could in affect strangle the mid majors and then hold TV contract hostage for even greater paydays.

The PAC 10 has a limited number of schools that meet their geographic, scholastic and football tradition standards. Don't be surprised if they reach as far as Fort Worth to grab the TCU Horn Frogs as they have become a real headache to the BCS and have a piece of one of the largest media markets in the country, DFW.

It would also give the PAC 10 a conduit to the rich fields of Texas High School football. What a recruiting tool that TCU would have playing 5 or 6 west coast games a year and the other schools having the opportunity to come to Texas and scope out talent. The weather is more condusive to playing PAC 10 style football as Colorado and Boise State both deal with snow in those late season games. Do you really think Pete Carroll wants to play in Boulder in a foot of snow in early December..."I don't think so!"

If the PAC 10 does begin to expand be ready for the other majors to follow suit as they try to incorporate the better teams form mid majors to boost their conference. If the PAC 10 does expand will someone please tell them that they have to say PAC 12 or whatever number they take so they don't sound "ignert" like the Big 10 with 11 schools. Instutites of higher learning that's just simple addition.

[badndn]

No brainer for the Pac 10 to add Colorado and Utah. Colorado is nice market in Denver and geographically a match as is Utah. They will not be adding schools based on how well they are doing in their football programs right now, but more based on numbers.

TCU has the facilities for the Big 12 in Amon Carter Stadium, UH doesn't in Robertson, but you could also see Arkansas in jump from the SEC to the Big 12. If so the SEC would go hard after Florida State IMO. ONe move could set off several!

[KDOSullivan]

What if UH started playing at Reliant? Or have they too much of a commitment to Robertson?

[TexasTerror]

1) UH does not want to play at Reliant. They are spending $$$ on Robertson. They want that atmosphere and are working to build it up.

2) SHSU's President is very gung-ho about FBS. It's getting even more and more obvious to those well connected to the program. The problem is, the funding and whether or not those in the athletic dept buy into it.

[Guest coachacola]

UH is going to spend around $30 million on a endzone facility that includes classrooms I believe.  Schools prefer on-campus stadiums for a better game-day atmosphere.  It should be interesting to see how Georgia State and UTSA do with their new football programs playing in large, off-campus domes.

TexasTerror, does SHSU have a deep-pocket donor that can fund a move to FBS? Texas State has the Fields and LU has the Umphreys.  Who does SHSU have because they'll need to upgrade the football stadium.  Texas State has a funding advantage over SHSU and LU due to their larger enrollment, how high can SHSU's athletic budget go in the next few years?  It was about $8 million last year, can it reach $10 to $12 million?

LU had a $6.5 million budget last year.  The new fee should kick in this year so I think the budget will approach $9 million this year.  I think $12 million is about the bare minimum to go FBS.  I think it'll be a challenge for LU and SHSU to reach that amount, but doable once you add ticket sales, game guarantees, etc.

[bugoy]

UH is going to spend around $30 million on a endzone facility that includes classrooms I believe.  Schools prefer on-campus stadiums for a better game-day atmosphere.  It should be interesting to see how Georgia State and UTSA do with their new football programs playing in large, off-campus domes.

TexasTerror, does SHSU have a deep-pocket donor that can fund a move to FBS? Texas State has the Fields and LU has the Umphreys.  Who does SHSU have because they'll need to upgrade the football stadium.  Texas State has a funding advantage over SHSU and LU due to their larger enrollment, how high can SHSU's athletic budget go in the next few years?  It was about $8 million last year, can it reach $10 to $12 million?

LU had a $6.5 million budget last year.  The new fee should kick in this year so I think the budget will approach $9 million this year.  I think $12 million is about the bare minimum to go FBS.  I think it'll be a challenge for LU and SHSU to reach that amount, but doable once you add ticket sales, game guarantees, etc.

at first i wasnt too happy about UTSA playing in the alamo dome but it seems to be really helping us recruit which is a good thing....also i believe the plan is to stay in the alamodome until we can afford a full circle seated stadium that holds about 45k people. i hear that the plans are similar to UCF's stadium.  the reason i like using the alamodome first is because hopefully it will pull san antonio to root for UTSA as their OWN team, because most of the core kids coming into the program, if not all are from san antonio and surrounding areas

[TexasTerror]

TexasTerror, does SHSU have a deep-pocket donor that can fund a move to FBS? Texas State has the Fields and LU has the Umphreys.  Who does SHSU have because they'll need to upgrade the football stadium.  Texas State has a funding advantage over SHSU and LU due to their larger enrollment, how high can SHSU's athletic budget go in the next few years?  It was about $8 million last year, can it reach $10 to $12 million?

We have one money guy - Mafrige. He's given a pretty penny thus far, both academically and otherwise. SHSU needs to get some other big wigs involved if we want this to work and perhaps there's a few of those on the committee they have formed under a different name, which has FBS exploratory all over it.

SHSU's budget last year was prior to the most recent student fee increase. Enrollment should be at 20k in the next few years and we'll be in that $10-12M range shortly, if were not there already.

[UNLV]

UH is going to spend around $30 million on a endzone facility that includes classrooms I believe.  Schools prefer on-campus stadiums for a better game-day atmosphere.  It should be interesting to see how Georgia State and UTSA do with their new football programs playing in large, off-campus domes.

TexasTerror, does SHSU have a deep-pocket donor that can fund a move to FBS? Texas State has the Fields and LU has the Umphreys.  Who does SHSU have because they'll need to upgrade the football stadium.  Texas State has a funding advantage over SHSU and LU due to their larger enrollment, how high can SHSU's athletic budget go in the next few years?  It was about $8 million last year, can it reach $10 to $12 million?

LU had a $6.5 million budget last year.  The new fee should kick in this year so I think the budget will approach $9 million this year.  I think $12 million is about the bare minimum to go FBS.  I think it'll be a challenge for LU and SHSU to reach that amount, but doable once you add ticket sales, game guarantees, etc.

You are forgetting advertising money from area of over a half million people.(including local areas outside MSA)

And we have a few more untapped deep deep pockets.