WACocalypse has begun – Texas State to Sun Belt is official

Courtesy of TxStateBobcats.com

Texas State University has accepted a bid to join the Sun Belt conference in 2013-2014 the schools’ official website reported this morning.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents is also reported to be voting today on Texas-San Antonio’s bid to Conference-USA.

Both Texas State and UTSA will be joining the WAC as football members in 2012-2013, which will apparently be their only season in the conference.

In addition to the Texas school defections from the WAC, both San Jose State and Utah State have told Vandal Nation they are in negotiations with the Mountain West but that nothing is official yet.

Utah State associate athletic director Jana Doggett said to “look for something later this week.”

And of course, Louisiana Tech is still expected to join C-USA as well.

The expected moves of the five soon to be former-WAC schools would leave Idaho and New Mexico State to fend for themselves. But for the Aggies there still may be hope.

Reports surfaced today that the Sun Belt Conference may be looking in to adding NMSU in all sports, but mostly thanks to their competitive basketball and baseball programs.

In a statement released by NMSU President Barbara Couture, who sits on the Board of Directors for the WAC, she states:

“Of course, New Mexico State University has no major media market to bring to the table. Without that market our “value” as a conference member appears to be less than other schools with less successful programs but that are located in areas with a greater population. The same thing appears to be the case for the University of Idaho.”

This combined with the statement released by Idaho’s Rob Spear yesterday would seem to indicate that the writing is on the wall for the WAC.

If New Mexico State gets an invitation to the Sun Belt and Idaho does not, the Vandals will be forced in to independence for the 2013-2014 season barring an alternative solution.

We will have more when it comes out.