Could there be more conference alignment involving a school from Utah? It’s possible.
Southern Utah has officially received an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference, as first reported by The St. George Spectrum on Tuesday.
“We received an official invitation from the Western Athletic Conference yesterday. We have not made a final decision, but are seriously considering it,” the school said in a statement shared with the Deseret News.
Southern Utah has been a member of the Big Sky Conference since 2012. If the T-Birds left the Big Sky, that would leave Weber State as the only in-state school in the conference that has its headquarters in Farmington.
Other WAC additions targeted
This comes one day after national college athletics writer Matt Brown reported five schools, including SUU, would be officially joining the WAC in the near future. The other schools include four Texas universities: Sam Houston State, Lamar, Abilene Christian and Stephen F. Austin.
Each of the four Texas schools currently competes in the Southland Conference.
The WAC currently has nine member institutions, including two from state of Utah: Utah Valley and Dixie State. The other league members are Cal Baptist, Chicago State, Grand Canyon, New Mexico State, Seattle, Tarleton State and UT Rio Grande Valley.
Why expand the WAC to Texas?
Football appears to be a motive in the WAC looking to add more members. Of the league’s nine current members, only Dixie State and Tarleton State have football programs. Both joined the WAC this year and were set to compete as FCS independents this fall, until the novel coronavirus pandemic pushed the FCS season until the spring.
Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin all sponsor football. Sam Houston State was ranked No. 22 in the preseason Stats FCS Top 25 poll released in August.
Kyle McDonald of WAC Hoops Digest further explained the motivation behind adding schools to form an NCAA postseason eligible football conference.
“Okay here is more clarification: ‘The WAC needs 8 teams because you need 6 postseason eligible teams to form a FCS football league. With Dixie and Tarleton being transition schools the 7 schools as-is only gives them 5,’” McDonald wrote on Twitter Monday following Brown’s report.