With Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada leaving the WAC, commissioner Karl Benson has a lot of work to do to keep his conference alive. Montana and Montana State are rumored to make the jump to FBS and the WAC as replacements, but Benson might have his sights on another school as well -- UT-San Antonio.
It’s a bit of a stretch considering the Roadrunners haven’t even fielded a football team yet.
UTSA is scheduled to make its football debut next season as an FCS independent. However, the Southland Conference, to which UTSA is currently affiliated in all other sports, is mandating that its members field all varsity sports within the conference.
The school plans to make the jump to FBS in 2014, but athletic director Lynn Hickey stresses that future conference affiliations for the Roadrunners are unknown.
“The fastest we can go is to declare in June 2012 that we want to move to FBS, that year we really need to have an idea that we can either be independent or have a new conference home with that time line in mind,” Hickey said Friday. “We’ve got a little bit of time. The difficulty of the conference situation right now is so fluid. It’s not only day-to-day but hour-to-hour, so there’s just so many things out there we can’t control.”
Currently, Hickey knows two things: former Miami Hurricane coach Larry Coker will coach UTSA in 2011 and games will be played at the Alamo Dome. Beyond that, there are still several question marks surrounding the program. For all Hickey knows, there may not be a WAC conference in 2014.