BYU to the West Coast Conference
 

BYU will be joining the small, private, mostly Jesuit, West Coast Conference in the 2011-2012 academic year. Their football program will go independent so that they don't have to share BCS revenue with their conference.

I know why the WCC agreed to add BYU ($$$) but seriously, why add BYU to a conference of small schools who will get their ass kicked by a bigger school with more money?

300 Tanganese don't care.

Thank you for your voice of reason Morty, I knew you'd come through for me!

Anytime.


I will miss you.

BYU isn't kicking Saint Mary's or Gonzaga's ass. They're trying to make it more than a two-school league.

That's correct.

I work for a WCC school and three years ago we put all our emphasis (and $$$) into our basketball program in hopes that if it improved we'd make more money, so this does not help us at all - we went from hoping to be in the top three in our conference to more than likely being in the bottom half.

I'm not saying I agree with the direction we've chosen to take (and there are many of us in the department that don't agree with trying to do more with less), but I don't see how this really helps us at all.

BYU adds exposure. They are a simi-big name and have a decent program. If they bring strength to the conference, that will help the entire conference. Fourth in a stronger conference is better than third in a weaker one.

The WCC's job is to get better and get more national exposure. Sitting around and waiting for Loyola Marymount and Portland to become at-large candidates isn't going to do that. You may not like it, but conferences are always going to jump at the opportunity to bring in a perennial top 25 team.

Totally legit point... I personally have no problem with the conference decision but it will hurt the smaller schools in the conference. My schools focus has been on becoming a "big dog" basketball team in the WCC and I think this knocks us back quite a bit. We just don't have the resources to compete with BYU (and we probably never will). Sure, we will get some residual income from any TV deal but our athletic director believes we'll never get additional donations until our team is good. Without money we probably can't win. Without winning, we probably can't get more donations - it's a catch-22 that will be our downfall.

Division I small school athletics is dying. I'm on a sinking ship and I know it.

Honestly just putting money into a program doesn't ensure any success (well it worked for KY but they are over the salary cap this year...)
Really what every smalltime program that morphed into a top program was a very good head coach and line of progression behind him. Obviously you need support but a guy who can recruit and coach can raise a teams profile a whole lot quicker than nice facilities.

Gonzaga and St mary's are prime basketball examples but look at what Boise St and TCU has done in football which is far tougher for smaller schools to compete. Look at a team like Butler or like Xavier or even a program like Siena.

Chuck, I agree 100% with you, we are doing things wrong. And as soon as our coach can win, he's gone... And we have no succession plan.

Our coach came into the office this morning to talk with his staff, I was told every other word out of his mouth about this subject was either f**k or s**t. He's not happy about BYU joining :rolleyes:

The problem is finding that great coach. Someone that won't be afraid to hire a quality staff and who doesn't look like they are looking to jump ship as soon as they win an opening round tourney game. It is really hard to find these guys because at that level you are either dealing with a non division I guy who has had success at the lower level but who will have different deamnds at the Div 1 level or an untested young guy. And the University has to have enough patience to let the guy have a chance to run the program for a few years. If I was trying to create a winner in the WCC I would try to find players in places the other guys won't look, like overseas guys. And I would probably try to find a couple of lights out shooters that are deemed too slow or small to play for big schools. Get a couple of undersized PG's who are fast and grab a couple of athletic guys that aren't that skilled and teach them to become defensive players and rebounders. If you could add just one skilled guy to that mix you can win a lot of games in the WCC.

Our coach is three years into a six year contract and hasn't done diddly yet. He's been applying for other jobs since he got here but no one will hire him since this is his first head coaching position. He's supposedly a great recruiter but we're still not winning much so he must be sweating with BYU joining the conference. I'd feel sorry for him but he's an ass so I don't.