Conference realignment: Are more WAC defections coming?

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The WAC has lived and died more than almost any other athletic conference, but back in 2021, the league thought it had finally found a new identity.

That January, the league announced it was adding Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin, along with Southern Utah.

While the league’s geographic footprint still spanned from Seattle to Southern California to Texas, and included public and private schools, league officials and athletic directors repeatedly told me the conference had a new identity, one that centered around growing markets. While other schools face structural concerns over demographic change and under-enrollment, WAC schools would overwhelmingly be in growing markets, growing states, and growing enrollment. They wanted to be a growth property…the league of the future.

And while Phoenix, Southern California and Utah would all be important parts of that vision, the league made it clear that the heart of the new WAC would run through Texas.

But almost immediately, those plans changed. The realignment aftershocks from Texas and Oklahoma’s move to the SEC eventually sent Sam Houston and New Mexico State to Conference USA. The league announced they were adding Incarnate Word and UT-Arlington, only for Lamar and Incarnate Word to almost immediately change plans and return to the Southland.

Then, last month, UTRGV announced their plans to join the Southland as well.

Athletically, that’s not a major loss. The Vaqueros have been a mainstay near the basement of the WAC men’s and women’s basketball standings, and have been middle-of-the-pack in baseball.

But South Texas wasn’t just a major market that the WAC wanted to keep. UTRGV’s departure also showed that a longtime WAC member, and an administration that had been supportive of the league’s vision, now believed they’d be better off elsewhere.

And they’re not the only Texas school considering their options….and any other departures could trigger a run of departures.

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