BYU to WCC in 2010-11

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5517305

Holy &*%$! It's actually happening!

I don't think you can emphasize how big adding a school with such a high quality athletics program to the conference actually is...

I'm trying to wrap my head around this....

OMG! Seriously?! WOW! I can't believe this is actually happening...

Barf.

And confirmation from the WCC:

BYU to Join the WCC beginning in 2011

SAN BRUNO, Calif. --- The West Coast Conference is pleased to announce that Brigham Young University has formally accepted an invitation to join the WCC with competition to begin in the 2011-12 academic year.


BYU, which will become an independent in FBS football, will compete in the West Coast Conference in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis and women’s volleyball.


Further information will be provided at a press conference scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 1 at LaVell Edwards Stadium on the Brigham Young University campus beginning at noon (MT). Attendance at the press conference is available only to credentialed members of the media.


The West Coast Conference and member institutions will have no further comment until the press conference Wednesday.


The press conference will be broadcast live on BYUtv. Viewing options for BYUtv include the basic tier on both Dish Network (channel 9304) and DirecTV (channel 374) and 500 cable systems nationwide. The press conference will be streamed live on BYUtv at http://www.byu.tv (first-time users will need to complete a free online registration form).

pilotram wrote:Barf.

Think of it as another team to draw our ire... I mean it isn't healthy to JUST loathe the Zags, right?

For soccer and Basketball, this could be really great.

Basketball especially. It's a real shakeup in terms of level of play.

Geezaldinho wrote:For soccer and Basketball, this could be really great.

Indeed, and their XC isn't to shabby either... We might not be able to get away with running a freshman team at the conference meet anymore...

Denver has to be awfully excited about this, as well.... will we go to 10 instead of 9?!

Fortunately we already have a signature brew to drink on game days:
http://www.wasatchbeers.com/polygporter.html

Too far? Eh, I don't care...

Geezaldinho wrote:For soccer and Basketball, this could be really great.

Basketball especially. It's a real shakeup in terms of level of play.

Remember the crowd we got when BYU came about 3 years ago?

They took over the Chiles Center like Gonzaga does. Fortunately Rev and the team are seeing to it more and more of the seats are taken by Pilot fans.

PilotNut wrote:Denver has to be awfully excited about this, as well.... will we go to 10 instead of 9?!

As a Denver fan. we are hopeful that the Pioneers can also join the WCC as BYU's travel partner.

Denver is private with 5,000 undergrads and 5,000 grad students. While we may not fit the perfect geographic profile of a Pacific or Seattle, we do bring a higher level academic profile with #84 nationally in USNWR, a new TV market, new facilities, the top rated non-football athletic dept in the country according to NACDA points, and a $24 million athletics budget. Men's Basketball is up and coming and will be a Sun Belt contender this year, and I expect a hoops RPI between 100-125. DU has won 28 NCAA titles (albeit 7 in hockey and 21 in skiing), where both sports are always national powers, and mens and womens lacrosse are also NCAA top 20 programs M soccer and W soccer, golf and tennis are NCAA tourney calibre programs. DU is NCAA tourney worthy in golf, tennis, and respectable in volleyball and swimming.

Add--Denver does make sense as a travel partner for BYU.

Geezaldinho wrote:I'm trying to wrap my head around this....

I don't get it. BYU has 29,000 students, something like 4 times the largest WCC school. Doesn't seem like a good fit.

And I am still trying to find which part of Utah touches the west coast!

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:
Remember the crowd we got when BYU came about 3 years ago?

And just think, that was only one family.

DaTruRochin wrote:

pilotram wrote:Barf.

Think of it as another team to draw our ire... I mean it isn't healthy to JUST loathe the Zags, right?

If you thought the Zags were full of themselves, just wait for BYU.

Here's what the WCC gets: a school that will screw up your scheduling by refusing to play on Sundays, and a school that has shown they will stab you in the back without thinking twice. I don't think they fit in the WCC, and they don't add much either. We don't need them to be a good basketball conference.

I'm really uneasy about this. As up7587 pointed out, BYU doesn't fit the profile of this conference demographically or religiously (just sayin') at all. Their basketball arena is enormous, they have a revenue-producing football program, and their fans are going to make GU fans seem like a breath of fresh air.

I think we may have bitten off more than we can chew here.

$.02

Rob's Jacket wrote:I'm really uneasy about this. As up7587 pointed out, BYU isn't doesn't fit the profile of this conference demographically or religiously (just sayin') at all. Their basketball arena is enormous, they have a revenue-producing football program, and their fans are going to make GU fans seem like a breath of fresh air.

I think we may have bitten off more than we can chew here.

$.02

Yeah. Looks like even the WCC will follow the money. It started with the big conferences and now the mid-majors are getting into the act.

BTW, are you wearing that purple suit to the Timbers Thursday? It's a North End formal for the last game. And bring a sunflower.

It will be interesting to see if they stuck to the principle that WCC teams share March Madness money. if so, it's a win for he rest of the conference. if not, Zaninovich is an idiot.

That's a good point, Geez.

Personally, I'm not overly excited about them joining the conference except that it brings another good women's soccer team into the mix. As for men's basketball, I'm on the fence as whether it's a good thing. I'll take the wait and see approach there.

Rev's take:

Adding BYU to WCC would not change our challenge since we already have Gonzaga. Would make for same challenge, bigger reward.

From his twitter page.

Rob's Jacket wrote: BYU doesn't fit the profile of this conference demographically or religiously (just sayin') at all.

The idea that we're all just a bunch of faith based schools is silly. The rest of the WCC looks like state schools compared to BYU, religiously speaking.
Here's another thing. Every time we play them, we'll be at both an altitude and time zone disadvantage. This will be true for every team in the WCC.

BYU will raise the profile of the WCC, bring in additional revenue, national interest, and challenge all current WCC programs to compete at a higher level.

I will admit that I was uneasy about this when the rumors started weeks ago, but now, it is a slam dunk deal that we cannot and should not refuse.

PilotNut wrote:BYU will raise the profile of the WCC, bring in additional revenue, national interest, and challenge all current WCC programs to compete at a higher level.

I will admit that I was uneasy about this when the rumors started weeks ago, but now, it is a slam dunk deal that we cannot and should not refuse.

It's not often that I disagree with Nut, but as I've thought about this the last couple of hours, I'm like this less and less. I agree that the addition of BYU presents a challenge that any competitor - someone like Rev, for instance - absolutely relishes. But my concern is whether or not existing WCC programs even have the resources and ability to compete with BYU. Just some raw numbers, with all the disclaimers that come with Wikipedia:

Undergraduate student population:
BYU: 32,955 (including 3,314 part-time students)

LMU: 5,746
USF: 5,248
SCU: 5,200
USD: 4,932
SMC: 4,768
GU: 4,729
Pepp: 3,439
UP: 2,997
REST OF WCC TOTAL: 37,059

Arena size:
BYU - Marriott Center: 22,700

GU - McCarthey Center: 6,000
USF - War Memorial Gym: 5,300
USD - Jenny Craig Pavilion: 5,100
UP - Chiles Center: 4,852
SCU - Leavey Center: 4,500
LMU - Gersten Pavilion: 4,156
SMC - McKeon Pavilion: 3,500
Pepp - Firestone Fieldhouse: 3,154
REST OF WCC TOTAL: 32,562

It's not hard to see which of these things is not like the others.

Yes, adding BYU raises the WCC's national exposure. Yes, it all but guarantees we'll be competitive in every major sport. But what about competition within the conference? How is UP - or anyone else for that matter - supposed to be able to compete across the board against a school with a revenue-generating football program and it's own TV network? Will UP soccer or XC fall off? No. BYU is a good thing for them because it adds elite competition. But I think this permanently relegates men's basketball, even with our very, very good coach, to being a low-to-mid tier team in our own conference. Last season was our best in fifteen years, and we'd have finished fourth in the new WCC.

While this helps the elite teams in various WCC sports, I think this murders intra-conference competition.

[/Debbie Downer]

PPT - If I actually owned that suit, I'd wear it every day. As it is, I'll try and find my dad's classic 70s orange leather jacket.