Winds of Change?

The list of prospects for the Conference USA / Mountain West merger has the Bobcats right in the thick of the hunt.

	Will Texas State be one of the schools selected by the new CUSA/MW merger?

Schools that have applied to the Alliance:

(WAC)
Idaho
LA Tech
New Mexico State
San Jose State
Texas State
UTSA
Utah State

(Sun Belt)
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
North Texas

(A-10)
Charlotte

A couple of things to add:
On the BobcatReport Podcast that was previously recorded, I stated stating my belief that Texas State was going to be an eventual member of the Mountain West while University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) would join Conference USA.

Now that someone besides myself is talking about something I said I wasn't going to, I'm open for questions.

It was my belief that the Alliance would split Texas State and UTSA up if you saw my original thread on this subject. Texas State would join the West and the Runners would join the East. The timing of this leak is extremely interesting.

Is Texas State in Play?

Texas State, UTSA, and North Texas are candidates if this is a 24 team league. I fully expect it to be. You need twelve teams to have a league championship game (a "Semifinal", if you will), and since this is a new league, they will need the approval of 3/4ths of membership to vote someone in. That is now 12 members. A team in Colorado will have the same amount of pull as a team in West Virginia toward expansion into Florida.

Texas is able to house teams in both of the middle divisions so it will probably raise the least amount of objections from such far-flung membership. Over half of the Alliance signed a 2012 recruit from the state. I think there are some very good Sun Belt programs like MTSU and Troy that will be left out of the Alliance because they aren't sexy enough names to the West or even to proud schools like Rice or Southern Miss. Those are my two wild cards. If one of them get in you can blow this entire thing up and start over.

I'd like to think that Texas State would have the support of Rice, Tulane, Tulsa, Air Force, UTEP, Wyoming, and New Mexico. That's 7/12.

The MWC side has nine teams and the CUSA side has seven. My current projection is for the West to add Utah State, San Jose State, and Texas State. I expect the East to add LA Tech, North Texas, one of FIU or FAU, Temple (football only), and UTSA. This will create a divisional setup as follows:

Pacific Division	Mountain Division	Central Division	Eastern Division
San Jose State	Air Force	Rice	East Carolina
Hawaii*	Colorado State	Tulane	Marshall
Fresno State	New Mexico	Tulsa	Southern Miss
Nevada	UTEP	La Tech	UAB
UNLV	Wyoming	North Texas	FIU/FAU
Utah State	Texas State	UTSA	Temple*

*Football Only
I think it is very likely Air Force leaves in two seasons for the Big East. When that happens, I expect UTSA to move to the Mountain division, Southern Miss to the Central, and the candidate to come from the East Coast. By then, Charlotte and Georgia State will have a couple of seasons under their belts and bring good markets into play.

As far as the WAC goes, I expect the Belt to readmit former members Idaho, Denver, and New Mexico State - plus offer UT Arlington membership. Seattle would apply for the WCC and one of the oldest conferences in the country would cease to exist. Boise would probably look toward the Big Sky for non-football athletics.

I put the odds of something close to this happening at 40%.

----

Another scenario would have the Sun Belt and MAC raided along with the WAC with a different twist on the outcome for the WAC.

Pacific Division	Mountain Division	Central Division	Eastern Division
San Jose State	Air Force	Rice	East Carolina
Hawaii*	Colorado State	Tulane	Marshall
Fresno State	New Mexico	Tulsa	Buffalo
Nevada	UTEP	UAB	FIU
UNLV	Wyoming	Mid Tenn/Troy/Western Kentucky	FAU
Utah State	North Texas	Southern Miss	Temple*

*Football Only
The reeling WAC and Sun Belt then look to merge, and join an alliance with the MAC.

Idaho	Arkansas State	Akron	Ball State
New Mexico State	Louisiana-Lafayette	Bowling Green	Central Michigan
Texas state	Louisiana-Monroe	Kent State	Eastern Michigan
UTSA	South Alabama	Miami (OH)	Northern Illinois
La Tech	Mid Tenn/Western Ken/TU	Ohio	UMass
TBD (UTA?)	Mid Tenn/Western Ken/TU	Toledo	Western Michigan

All current WAC non-football full members would be folded into this along with UALR of the Sun Belt.

I put the odds of this happening (or something similar) at 30%.

---
Finally, I have a doomsday scenario. What if the Alliance just brought back their former WAC-mates and added the Florida Belt schools?

Pacific Division	Mountain Division	Central Division	Eastern Division
San Jose State	Air Force	Rice	East Carolina
Hawaii*	Colorado State	Tulane	Marshall
Fresno State	New Mexico	Tulsa	UAB
Nevada	UTEP/New Mexico St	La Tech	FIU
UNLV	Wyoming	New Mexico St /UTEP	FAU
Utah State	Idaho	Southern Miss	Temple*

*Football Only
It's not the end of the world as Texas State would probably help shore up a tighter Sun Belt. They can still partner up with the MAC and eventually add Lamar, and "save" UT Arlington if they decide to revive football.

Arkansas State
Lamar
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana-Monroe
Middle Tennessee
North Texas
Southern Alabama
Texas State
UTA
UTSA
Troy
Western Kentucky

Odds of something close to this, in my opinion? 20%.

---

I'm saving that last 10% for something unexpected, like the alliance staying at 20.

I've gone on record multiple times that I like the WAC and outside an almost-certain pounding by LA Tech in 2012, I like Texas State's chances in the depleted conference. It's a great place to incubate a program and the Bobcats should be competitive sooner rather than later. In my mind, these are the three most likely scenarios for Texas State and the new Alliance.

Three and Out - Week Eleven

(1) Greetings and salutations from Jacksonville, Arkansas. I was unable to attend the game this weekend due to work obligations but I've talked to our staff and others in the know about it. From what I was told, despite the hype from Saturday, neither Shaun Rutherford nor Tyler Arndt knows who is going to be the starter against UCA. There is going to be more plays in Arndt's packages that are more suited to his abilities from this point forward. Don't be surprised if there's some missing assignments, bad routes, or miscommunication in Conway if Arndt's playing under center.

Even if Arndt becomes a monster and forces his way into becoming the starter somehow, Shaun Rutherford is not expected to see time at wideout or in the return game the next two contests. For this season he is a quarterback.

Despite Sam Houston's ranking and undefeated record, as well as UCA's winning season so far this year, these games are both considered winnable and the team is being challenged to close out the season on a three game win streak. These aren't games to test out Arndt's abilities, Rutherford's development, or see how the team faces adversity. It's been determined that the Bobcats need to focus and play a complete sixty minutes, something they haven't accomplished yet this season. If and when they do, the feeling is that they can beat both the Bears and the Bearkats to close out FCS play in style.

(2) Missouri is gone to the SEC and if you haven't noticed, the proposed merger of CUSA and MWC for football hasn't gone through. I was told early this morning that perhaps it wasn't going to happen, as the MWC has received around twenty applications for membership and CUSA is in the process of identifying potential new schools. I was told that both Texas State and UTSA have applied to each by three separate sources. The Sun Belt remains a possibility if they are hit hard by a CUSA/MWC raid but I was told Texas State would prefer a depleted WAC over the Sun Belt.


Speaking of the WAC, Air Force hasn't made their mind up about leaving the MWC with Boise. The commissioners of the MWC and CUSA will meet in Colorado Springs today and tomorrow. SDSU has spoken up about being a Western partner for the Big East with the Broncos but the league isn't very interested. If Boise winds up being the only MWC team to leave, it's looking like Memphis will be asked to join the Big East along with Houston, SMU, and UCF. This will drop CUSA to 8 football teams - the MWC will have nine. The WAC will have seven and is already in the regional footprint of the MWC. Could the band get back together, ie the 16-team WAC from the late nineties? It's doubtful, but it's being discussed.


Finally, something I was told about a week ago and just now got permission to share as it may out someone that doesn't want to be identified. UTSA's Hickey and Romo get a lot of praise for being proactive and media-friendly toward their aggression promoting the university, especially in the matter of realignment. Texas State is perceived as weaker and not as hardcore about finding a potential home. That's not the case at all. Texas State is happy with the 7/10 WAC and supports Karl Benson in his quest to find two more football schools, and if the Sun Belt is fleeced by CUSA, Texas State believes he can bring Louisiana-Lafayette and North Texas into the fold. If the WAC gets raided, it's believed that Franchione is an advocate of playing in a depleted conference to build his program off of and the administration will use having a solid bowl-eligible team as reasoning behind deserving a future invite or to serve as a Texas-centric league. In the meantime, their advocate is working behind the scenes to make sure Texas State has a chair if the WAC's music does indeed stop playing. They don't believe this will happen.


(3) Around the Top 25:

Stanford 42, Oregon 37

Georgia Tech 31, Virginia Tech 27

Nebraska 25, Penn State 21

Georgia 38, Auburn 28


Around the state:

Texas 35, Mizzou 27

Oklahoma State 51, Texas Tech 31

Baylor 49, Kansas 12

Kansas State 38, Texas A&M 35

Houston 63, Tulane 14

Northwestern 27, Rice 19

SMU 45, Navy 42

East Carolina 48, UTEP 24

Boise State 48, TCU 31

Troy 21, North Texas 13


Around the WAC:

Utah State 34, San Jose State 24

LA Tech 28, Ole Miss 25

Fresno State 34, New Mexico State 27

BYU 28, Idaho 24

Hawaii 38, Nevada 28

Three and Out - Week Nine

(1) Note - I had ridiculous problems with the streaming video.

Regarding the game on Saturday, what can I say that hasn't been repeated already? I wanted an undefeated streak at the end of this run through the Southland teams, and I thought this team had it in them. Sadly, we remain fully reminded that the Bobcats are a work in progress. Say goodbye to Hammond. The next time Texas State is scheduled to play in the state of Louisiana is their first trip to Ruston for a WAC game against Louisiana Tech in 2013.

Before I get too critical, it seemed like that was Southeastern's best game of the year. I know they gave up over 500 yards but their quarterback looked pretty good and Simmie Yarborough is now their all-time leading receiver. Former Longhorn (and all around felonious guy) Brandon Collins had a nice little game as well as senior Kory Theodore.

I don't see how a team can win many games on the road putting the ball on the rug twice while the defense allows at least a touchdown in each quarter and causes no turnovers of their own. 4-14 on third down and 1-4 on fourth down, too? I get that much of that comes from trying to come back in the fourth quarter, but still. This was against a team whose only previous victory was against a 1-6 MEAC school. What about the two turnovers by Rutherford and Lopez? One fumble in 45 running plays toward the end of the game is borderline acceptable. The kickoff return fumble was more aggravating. It was a ten point swing in less than a minute.

Congratulations go out to Terrance Franks for his monstrous 234 yards on only 24 carries. That's 9.8 yards a carry with two touchdowns.

In other news, Texas State led Texas Tech in Lubbock 10-9 at the half. Tech led Oklahoma, ranked 3rd on Saturday, 24-7 at the half en route to a 41-38 victory in Norman. Tech is Texas State's home opener in 2012 and the Bobcats just lost to Southeastern Louisiana. Just a little food for thought.

(2) I guess until Realignment Madness ends, this is where I talk about what I hear is going on. Yesterday I heard that the Big East was presented a proposal that had a 32 team national mega-conference. The Big East would take their schools plus Navy, Louisiana Tech, San Jose State, and Temple and merge them with the new Conference-USA/MWC football conference. West Virginia was not included as the CUSA/MWC representatives that put it together believe they are going to the Big 12.

This is a very bad development for Texas State, but then I heard there was also a 28 team version that removed the four teams I listed earlier. I didn't know how much to read into this until I heard the Boston Globe published a story on this exact same new dilemma. I guess it's not just a wild rumor but I am still checking with my people to figure out what is going on.

I still think they'll make a go of taking Boise, Air Force, SMU, Houston, UCF and Navy and the plan I just mentioned is a non-BCS pipe dream.

(3) Around the top 25:

Kansas State 35, Oklahoma 32

Georgia Tech 27, Clemson 21

Michigan State 24, Nebraska 17

Penn State 20, Illinois 19

Around the state:

Houston 45, Rice 17 (This is the televised Thursday game on ESPN - FYI)

Texas A&M 41, Missouri 37

Oklahoma State 55, Baylor 35

Texas 50, Kansas 10

Texas Tech 49, Iowa State 27

SMU 38, Tulsa 30

Southern Miss 28, UTEP 17

TCU 24, BYU 21 (Televised Friday game on ESPN)

Arkansas State 38, North Texas 21

Around the WAC:
Louisiana Tech 31, San Jose State 25

Hawaii 45, Idaho 14

Nevada 38, New Mexico State 21

Three and Out - Week Eight

(1) Sorry that I missed last week, but I did go down to San Marcos to catch the Lamar game. We made the decision to do a live game thread rather than a Twitter play-by-play since they only had one seat in the press box for us. I'd like to hear what your thoughts were on that.


As far as the game went, I was loving it at 35-0 but not completely satisfied with 46-21. Fran has raised my expectations that much. Lamar is what UTSA hopes they can be next year and once they put in West Virginia transfer Jeremy Johnson at QB they became what I anticipate Texas State will see in the WAC in 2012. I spent Friday night watching San Jose State eek out one of the ugliest wins I have ever seen, but after watching Saturday's game either team would have beaten the Bobcats by 28. These boys have a long way to go still but everyone should be happy with 5-2. They have a very winnable roadie against Southeastern Louisiana and then home dates against Northwestern State and Prairie View A&M following that. I don't think it's unreasonable to believe the Cats will be 8-2 when they head to Conway to battle Central Arkansas.


(2) Expansion and realignment nonsense? Here ya go. We have it straight from Karl Benson's mouth that North Texas and Louisiana-Lafayette are his targets, and he's really not interested in adding AFA or Boise if they don't bring football. He likes where the WAC currently is, as much as he can frankly. Benson is looking for that eighth football school and believes the CUSA/MWC merger will bring fruit to his search. He loved the enthusiasm shown in Bobcat Alley and other tailgating sections. When I caught him in the press box at halftime and asked him what he thought of Texas State football gameday, he said it was one of the best stops of his career.


Line of the day: I ask him if he was happy to see San Jose State beat Hawaii Friday night. "Well, it's a conference game so I am impartial but I usually don't stay up until 11:30 watching football games." Then we all started laughing.

While he would like a team like Montana or Montana State to break loose, it was made very, very clear to us that UNT and LaLa are who he is after, and he has a plan to get them during "realignment madness".


Let me tell you what else I am hearing about. The Big East is trying to get Temple in. A move Villanova is adamantly against. It's looking like Boise State, Air Force, Navy, Central Florida, Houston and SMU are going to get invites there. East Carolina and Temple are backup plans if Boise and AF decline (as expected). Navy is still on the fence but the other three will join in a heartbeat.

Conference USA's old TV deal required a championship game, but it's rather unclear how TV and the merger will affect that yet. If Boise and Air Force stay while Houston, SMU, UCF, and East Carolina go then that's an eighteen team league. If there's two nine team divisions in the league, they can basically play eight or nine (with a crossover game) conference games a year and have a championship game. I believe that is the direction Banowsky and Thompson are headed. Banowsky will take over the Big 12 after Neinas while the merged conference will stay under Thompson's leadership and eventually will be for all sports.

Oh yeah, this saved the WAC if you didn't notice. There are way too many teams to worry about now for some of these leagues. This also ensures an undefeated WAC team will get extremely favorable pub as a BCS buster if the situation ever arises. They'll be the ultimate underdog. At least we can stop worrying about if the conference is going to exist in 2012. I now think it's possible to get North Texas or La-La after reading all this crap and talking with Mr. Benson, and I am no sunshine pumper. The WAC is still a regional brand while the Sun Belt is about to be completely overshadowed by this new league. It's a good thing to join the weakest league in the country in 2012. I think Texas State might be able to win the Potato Bowl in 2013 and get some serious momentum for the future.

(3) Around the Top 25:

LSU 27, Auburn 10

Wisconsin 24, Michigan State 21

Stanford 35, Washington 28

Around the state:

Texas A&M 42, Iowa State 19

Oklahoma 55, Texas Tech 45

Houston 49, Marshall 24

Rice 26, Tulsa 24

SMU 34, Southern Miss 31

UTEP 29, Colorado State 27

TCU 41, New Mexico 7

LA-Monroe 33, North Texas 21


Around the WAC:

Utah State 31, LA Tech 20

Nevada 35, Fresno State 28

Hawaii 28, NM State 17

Three and Out - Week Six

(1) It looked like the mess we tried to stir up over Twitter with Nicholls not packing the paddle might have worked. I can't take complete credit but every little bit helps and I like to think we contributed to the uproar. About 15,000 fans on Saturday asked, "Where's our paddle?" as the final seconds bled off the game clock. The specific oar in question was left in the Louisiana backwoods on questionable grounds by the Colonel's athletic director. The Loud Crowd packed a spare and several fans brought their own to the drubbing.

As far as the game went, I think Shaun Rutherford is getting the hang of this spread option, I was pleasantly surprised by the seven sacks by the Bobcat defense, and I really love blocked punts and extra points. The fake FG was completely unexpected, as Will Johnson has been so money on field goals this year. Shaun had four incompletions, three TD's, and one interception in twelve passing attempts.

In the past two games he's a combined 18-28 for an even 350 yards with seven touchdown and two interceptions. I don't share the warm fuzzies with the Bobcats' offense that I have for their defense, but I am done arguing about who the quarterback should be.

I wonder if Mike Sherman knew Michael Ebbitt was even on the roster at Texas A&M. Ebbitt had four of Texas State's seven sacks on Saturday and accounts for a third of the Bobcats season total to date. Fran (and new football Operations Director Mike Groce) recruited him once out of California and now a second time when they brought him over from College Station. He's been an unexpected bonus for Naivar's defense.

McNeese State, Texas State's next opponent, broke up a two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter to preserve a win at Northwestern, their seventh in a row against the Demons. Riley Dodge did not play for the Cowboys and he is questionable for this week's game versus the Bobcats. Dodge, the hard luck QB transfer from North Texas and former Southlake Carroll star, has seen way more than his share of injuries in his collegiate career. He's been sharing snaps with sophomore Cody Stroud and took a monster hit from a Southeastern defender the week before.


(2) I'm not much of a Cowboys fan, or an Aggie fan either. Either way, I saw two of the biggest second half collapses I can remember over the weekend. I haven't seen a pro team choke a lead away since I was a teenager and Frank Reich led the Bills back over the Oilers. At 27-3, I was ready to leave the bar and go home.

I had the canine side of my family in town to go watch the game versus Arkansas at Jerryworld, so I went to wait for them at a nearby bar and thought it was over at 35-17. Well, the bar had the official Razorback watching party going on and not even 628 yards of offense by the Ags shut them up or held their team down. I thought it would be funny to have the contingent that went to the game meet me there. They were not amused when the red-clad Hog fans started chanting "S-E-C! S-E-C!" at them upon their entrance. I'll remember that for next time.

Speaking of Aggies and conference realignment, this is what I've been hearing lately. Texas wants to go to ten, the Oklahoma schools want to go to 12, and Big 12 interim commish Chuck Neinas is pushing to expand and solidify now. He'll probably win. The candidates look to be BYU, Louisville, and in a major surprise, the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian University. My source was at their loss to SMU Saturday. Missouri is not expected to bolt by many people. Their blood feud with Kansas (the "Border War") as a conference rivalry is too important to leave behind and they are satisfied with the new deal to equally share first and second tier TV money in the Big 12.

What does this mean for Texas State? I'll try to be brief in breaking this down.

The Big East needs more teams than just throwing in Temple. Look for them to raid C-USA and possibly the MAC to replenish their ranks. The resulting chaos will cause C-USA to come after the Sunbelt, the WAC, or possibly the MWC. All cards are on the table at this point as the MWC will probably try for 12 and a title game in an arms match with C-USA. C-USA will almost certainly win, by the way, because they'll have Neinas' support and their commissioner will be next in line for the Big 12 job. Keep in mind the Sun Belt will probably be hit to replace Temple by a school like Western Kentucky by the MAC. There's going to be holes to fill everywhere and it looks like matters are going to be driven by market size. One last thing to keep in mind is that Texas State needs the WAC more than it needs them; which is an incredible fact considering the circumstances. I don't think the conference is going to get nailed as hard as some other people do.

I have it on pretty good authority that they're all in this together for now, but the Bobcats' neighbors to the south are much more aggressive regarding their future home. Both schools have applied informally to C-USA, the MWC, and the Sun Belt. I found out this morning that UTSA was one of the 20 that applied to the Big 12. In the meantime, let's just hope everyone at the non-AQ level doesn't get crazy and start building mega-leagues. I don't care what you read, C-USA isn't going to disappear and I doubt the Big East will either. Texas State needs the WAC to be operational for June 2012 or the Bobcats have no guarantees of joining an FBS league.

(3)Around the Top 25:

Oklahoma 31, Texas 21

LSU 24, Florida 7

Arkansas 44, Auburn 34

Around the state:

Rice 34, Memphis 0

Texas Tech 45, Texas A&M 42

Baylor 31, Iowa State 10

San Diego State 28, TCU 24

Florida Atlantic 16, North Texas 10

Houston 37, East Carolina 33

Around the WAC:

Boise State 48, Fresno State 20

UNLV 24, Nevada 13

LA Tech 21, Idaho 17

Utah State 25, Wyoming 24

BYU 44, San Jose State 15

Three and Out - Week Four

(1) I decided on Friday night to make it down for the Texas State home opener against Tarleton State. If you weren't there or in the area, I doubt you can understand the shock most of us had when a 90 minute thunderstorm caused over half of the tailgaters to leave and still have 15,800 in attendance. It didn't break the record of 16,000 set in 1982 versus Angelo State (edit: game in 1981 versus Texas A&M - Kingsville also had higher attendance, then known as Texas A&I) but it was very impressive to see an almost full stadium in person.

The game? Well, after seeing two games streamed over the internet it was just nice to be able to watch them play in person. There were a couple spectacular plays and a lot of mistakes. I can see the progress being made and I wish I could answer the quarterback question for everyone. I was very, very surprised to see Tyler Arndt not take even a single snap. Shaun Rutherford's stats passing were 11-22 for 106 yards. Over half of that was on two receptions to TE Kyle Doll. In person, I think I understand why Rutherford is starting. The way this spread option is run the QB has to carry the ball at least 10 times a game. There will be times that number pops up to 20 if the defense starts keying in on the tailback.

Texas State's going to be one dimensional on offense and people are going to have to learn to live with that. There are times where this can be incredibly effective but it will look terrible against big, athletic front sevens until Texas State gets the size to counter that. I think a lot of games with 100 yards of passing are in the future.

I was scared of what the defense was going to look like in person after they gave up over 1100 yards their first two games. Tarleton couldn't run to save their lives against the front seven. On the other hand, the secondary looks vulnerable and that's not good with SFA up next. The Jacks got torched by Baylor in a lightning shortened game in Waco last week but Brady Attaway will probably throw 50 times this week. He's not Jeremy Moses but he's capable and deadly accurate if he gets time behind the line. I think Texas State can get pressure on him but don't be surprised if this game we see 350 yards passing out of SFA.


We live-tweeted and ran a game thread this week sitting in the press box. This might have to be a necessity in the future as we were given stat updates and drive summaries. I hope you guys followed @bobcatreport this Saturday if you weren't there. We were almost able to do play by play tweeting. I found it to be a nice little feature and I'd like to think it was well received.

(2) Information is loosening up regarding some of the intentions of the WAC over the next year and I'm surprised at what's going on. It looks for right now that the conference plans to only invite Cal State Bakersfield (CSUB) and Dallas Baptist (DBU) as baseball-only affiliates for the 2013 year. They will go forward as associate members, much like Sacramento State (Sac State) is currently in baseball.

It's interesting to view what the three schools have to offer. Dallas Baptist has a school record 5500 enrollees this fall but the rest of their sports outside of baseball draw very few fans and struggle at the Division II level. Sacramento State would be a home run as a full member of the WAC, as the Hornets play football in a 22,000 seat stadium in proximity to current member San Jose State. They for now have chosen to keep their gridiron team in the FCS-playing Big Sky. CSUB would love to have a full-time home in the WAC, but lack of football and other considerations prevented their membership.

I think CSUB will work toward full membership in the future and DBU will enjoy being a powerhouse in baseball with a permanent home in the WAC. I don't see them enjoying full membership with the prior addition of UT Arlington less than 25 miles away. Both teams are outstanding additions to the WAC and lead me to believe we might see some other affiliate members in the future for other sports.

The question was asked in the War Room about Texas State talking to other conferences. I know first hand how happy the school is with full WAC membership and all of their plans point toward that. However, I've been told by a media member here in DFW that pretty much every school in the country at the FBS non-AQ level has talked things over with other conferences gauging interest. Texas State's response has been that they want to stay with the WAC long term and they support the long term goals and vision of the conference leadership. However, if that is compromised, they would be willing to have further discussions with two of the three leagues within their footprint. Those two leagues are Conference USA and the Mountain West. Let me repeat - Texas State wants to be in the WAC and for the league to be successful. They find it the best place to grow into an FBS level power if they can, and they like what the league is doing to sustain itself. The goals of the membership match their own and their long-term budgeting is for play in the Western Athletic Conference. However, if league integrity is compromised, they are not going to play as an FBS independent.

As for other matters around college football like the ACC picking up Pitt and Syracuse, no non-AQs have been poached yet. It's ludicrous to think that Texas State is a huge get for anyone as a transitional unless another non-AQ league's desperate for another school in Texas. That could happen but it's far too early to speculate much further. Rest assured that Texas State is OK if the poop hits the fan at the lowest level of FBS.

(3) Around the top 25:

Texas A&M 35, Oklahoma State 31

Alabama 27, Arkansas 17

Clemson 30, Florida State 16

LSU 21, West Virginia 20

Baylor 28, Rice 24

Around the state:

SMU 44, Memphis 6

TCU 51, Portland State 3

South Florida 41, UTEP 27

Texas Tech 44, Nevada 13

Houston 56, Georgia State 19

Around the WAC:

UTSA 31, Bacone College 10

New Mexico State 24, San Jose State 19

Fresno State 36, Idaho 21

Mississippi State 47, Louisiana Tech 17

Utah State 25, Colorado State 17

Hawaii 44, UC-Davis 13