It was reported that the Mountain West, with the specter of BYU potentially leaving looming ominously over the conference, had approached Fresno State and Nevada about jumping ship from the WAC.
24 hours and one official invitation later, one of those schools is indeed headed overboard.
Citing sources with knowledge of the situation, the Fresno Bee is reporting that Fresno State has accepted the Mountain West’s invitation and will become the conference’s ninth team — for now. An official announcement is expected at some point today.
Interestingly, the Bee reports that the Bulldogs’ decision to join the MWC is independent of BYU leaving to become a football independent, although that seems to be a matter of when and not if.
With the Bulldogs accepting their invitation, Nevada will likely follow suit as it would make little or no sense for them to stay in a conference that’s lost their two flagships — Boise State and Fresno State.
goodbye WAC
CFT staff get on it.
Star Telegram reporter Jennifer Engel just tweeted some interesting stuff from TCU coach Gary Patterson about the BYU move.
her twitter acct is @engeljen
@JaggedMark: Thanks for the heads up. Very, very cryptic and intriguing, especially the “national landscape” part.
[...] to leave the WAC for the Mountain West in the past six months, joining Boise State, Nevada and Fresno State. The former will join in 2011, while the latter two will come on board in [...]
[...] Western Athletic Conference is already listing due to the departures of Boise State this year, and Fresno State, Hawaii and Nevada next year, all for the Mountain [...]
[...] if losing Boise State, Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii to the Mountain West wasn’t already enough to pull the WAC off life support, it [...]
[...] 3:12 PM EDT While the Mountain West will be adding Boise State in 2011, and Nevada, Hawaii and Fresno State in 2012, they will also lose Utah (Pac-12) and BYU (independence) this year and TCU (Big East) the [...]
[...] that’s gutted membership in recent years. In addition to Boise State, the WAC will lose Fresno State, Hawaii and Nevada to the Mountain West this [...]