American Athletic Conference

[Signman]

What happens to WSU if the B12 does implode? Most of the rumors I hear are that Texas and OU get swept up leaving 8 other schools in the cold. That could leave some interesting opportunities for a really good full service athletic program in SC Kansas.

Bring it back.

[MoValley John]

Seems like I heard Lambo or someone earlier in the year saying that might already be under consideration. However, it won't do much for Title IX compliance. The NCAA currently only allows 3 scholarships on an equivalency basis if you sponsor indoor volleyball and 8 if you do not have indoor volleyball.

From what I can tell the season is played in March and April so unless they are playing on an indoor sand court you might not see too many bikini clad players at home matches in Wichita which I assume is what has triggered @pinstripers: enthusiasm.

Former Shocker assistant R.J. Abella is the assistant sand volleyball coach and recruiting coordinator at South Carolina. Shocker senior Katie Reilly, who is graduating this month, is heading to South Carolina to play sand volleyball and work on her masters in exercise science. I looked at the volleyball rosters on the SC site to see if the players participated in both indoor Volleyball in the fall and sand volleyball in the spring. I did not see any participation in both sports at South Carolina. Interestingly, the tallest player on the SC sand volleyball team was 6-0 and their was only 1 of those. So Katie will go from being an undersized middle at WSU to the tallest player on the sand VB team at SC.

I don't know how volleyball is done at most, if any schools. I just don't pay attention. That said, on the annual fourth grade field trip to the Nebraska Athletic complex that I recently attended with my son, they explained that beach volleyball is one of the things that they do for conditioning. I believe that if you're on the regular volleyball team, you also play beach volleyball.

[1972Shocker]

What female sports would WSU add in order to satisfy Title IX?

If you look at the sports sponsored by the Valley in which the Shockers do not compete you have Soccer and Swimming & Diving which would add 19.8 scholarship equivalents. That would be the same in MWC. The AAC has those two sports plus women's rowing. Women's rowing has 20 scholarship equivalents. Of course, you can always participate in a sport as an independent or participate in a different league if need be.

And, of course, you can look at dropping men's sports. Probably why MSU doesn't sponsor Men's XC/Track & Field or Men's Tennis but they do have Swimming & Diving for the Ladies for example. May also partially explain why the Valley has 8 women's tennis programs and only 4 men's tennis programs. Cutting men's sports to accommodate Title IX is one of the things I most dislike about the impact of that law. Personally, I think the should just carve out Football from the equation.

The NCAA does allow 5 scholarships for women's bowling but none for the men. Not sure that is enough of an incentive for WSU to switch its bowling programs from USBC sponsorship to NCAA sponsorship. I doubt it.

[1972Shocker]

I don't know how volleyball is done at most, if any schools. I just don't pay attention. That said, on the annual fourth grade field trip to the Nebraska Athletic complex that I recently attended with my son, they explained that beach volleyball is one of the things that they do for conditioning. I believe that if you're on the regular volleyball team, you also play beach volleyball.

I don't know much about how Sand volleyball works either. All of Nebraska's 11 players on their sand volleyball team are also on their 16 player indoor volleyball roster. Just the opposite of the situation at South Carolina. Taking the Nebraska approach does have one potential benefit. You can effectively expand the number of players on full volleyball scholarships from 12 to 15 (or, for example, have 12 full scholarship players and 6 partial scholarship players if you split you sand scholarships in half). One thing for sure is that the Nebraska sand team would tower over the South Carolina sand team.

I can see where it would be pretty good for conditioning.

According to this web site their were 39 D-1 progams that sponsored sand volleyball in 2014. So it is a sport still in in infancy. How much it grow remains to be seen.

Anywho I guess these are questions WSU will have to address as part of it's review of its athletic department.

[Shocker-maniac]

I do not believe Bardo is anyone's puppet. I do believe he had to have had conversations with Pickenesque people before he brought these ideas forward to the public. He is definitely a Thinker, Doer and Mover.

I have thought this, as well. The thought has also crossed my mind that in his hip pocket he's holding a semi-firm offer from a conference that if WSU commits to adding FBS football with the commitment of adequate financial resources and backing that WSU will be invited to join the conference. Of course, this is pure conjecture.

[wu_shizzle]

Just buy Pitt State. :)

If only there were Mergers and Acquisitions in college sports.

[Shocker-maniac]

From Terre Haute:

Wichita State is Thinking Big, is it Time to get Nervous?

http://www.tribstar.com/sports/todd-....html?mode=jqm

[Kung Wu]

If only there were Mergers and Acquisitions in college sports.

Well isn't WSU considering acquiring WATC?

[WuShock16]

We'll probably be in the freaking SEC next season.

Ha, I hope not. It would fuel the argument from my ex-girlfriend (from Iowa) that Kansas is part of the south. ;)

Off topic, but it reminds me of a guy I know tweeting about the irony of seeing a car with a KU license plate and a Confederate flag bumper sticker. Ummm....

[1972Shocker]

From Terre Haute:
Wichita State is Thinking Big, is it Time to get Nervous?

http://www.tribstar.com/sports/todd-....html?mode=jqm

Todd Golden must be regular reader of ShockerNet:

Shocker Fever has been alive and well in Wichita for the last 15 years and there's no sign of it abating.

More seriously I thought it was a pretty decent article by Golden, the INS beat writer.

[wufan]

What's the point of even satisfying Title IX in this day and age when other schools get to hire prostitutes, make up fake classes and pay players to join their program? Why don't we just say we started a women's team and then when anyone asks what it is, we can hire lawyers and take 4 years figuring out if we did add a women's program or not...

Perhaps we could put some ladies on hooker scholarships?

[RoyalShock]

The Eagle has republished the articles of old from football's demise and the attempts to bring it back.

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article49022255.html

[Shocker-maniac]

This article states that WSU inquired about membership in MWC about 2 years ago, but it didn't go anywhere.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/25410047/rice-utep-being-mentioned-as-mountain-west-considers-expansion

[ShockerPrez]

This article states that WSU inquired about membership in MWC about 2 years ago, but it didn't go anywhere.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoot...ders-expansion

Does communication between message boards really constitute an official inquiry?

[Shocker-maniac]

Note: I originally post this in the football thread, but it has as much to do with realignment so I am putting it in this thead, as well.


Random thoughts from maniac:

1. I have not been a proponent for returning football, and I have connected the success of our basketball program to the absence of football draining our resources. However, I have to admit hearing Bardo talking about the possibility of football returning to WSU caused my heart to go pitter-patter. Just the thought of going to campus on autumn days (or evenings) for football games is very appealing to me.

2. I don't know if this is entirely accurate but I recently heard someone say that WSU is one of about 25 or so D1 athletic programs that operates in the black. I don't see how we can successfully sustain the level of success our athletic program is achieving unless there is a deep war chest that underwrites whatever deficits that result from football. In addition, there will be substantial start up costs for football. So, we are most likely talking about lots and lots of dollars. WSU has received a lot of generous support from benefactors and corporate sponsors, but I'm not sure the necessary money could be raised from these sources. It seems like we would have to view this as a quality of life issue for the community and look at some tax support to help underwrite the football program. Could that happen? I really don't know.

3. This really is about a lot more than athletics. Really it is directly tied to the Bardo's academic goals for WSU. It's really related to the marketing and image of WSU:

a. Can WSU achieve the enrollment goal of 22K without football? Maybe or maybe not, but I have some doubts that it can. Students are concerned about quality of life and for many having football is an important component of their student experience. I can tell you that in the fall I saw many tweets from students wishing that they had football games to go to. I don't think that we have to look any farther than Manhattan to see what the impact football can have on enrollment.

b. Does an emerging research university belong in the Missouri Valley Conference? Whether we like it or not, a good part of our recognition and credibility comes from our conference affiliation. I think that both in athletics and academics, WSU is outgrowing the MVC. We need to move on if possible. Can WSU upgrade athletic conferences without a football program? I know others may think differently, but I don't think as a public institution in the central region of the country that we have any opportunities of upgrading without football. I think the days of hybrid conferences (Olympic sports schools in football conferences) are gone. I have a feeling that Bardo has had the discussions with conferences like the MWC and AAC and has come to the same conclusion. Thus, he is now looking at the feasibility of adding football. Otherwise, we already would have a new and better conference affiliation.

c. WSU is targeting Texas and Oklahoma for enrollment growth. Membership in the AAC would help with our exposure and marketing to prospective students in these areas. The MVC's footprint does not provide us exposure to our geographical target market.

4. It seems that attendance for volleyball would be adversely impacted by football. I suspect a good portion of our perennial top 10 attendance is due to the absence of football on the campus.

5. Bardo is to WSU academics what Marshall is to WSU basketball. He is a university president on steroids. He is exactly what our university needs. He is taking WSU academically to a much higher level. He is a visionary and a leader. He is not afraid to address the obstacles that prevent him from achieving his goals for this University. I have no idea if he can bring football back, he should be commended for looking at it to see if it can be done.

6. Even if we had a competitive football program there are other obstacles to a conference upgrade. Namely, our relatively smaller TV market.