How does the conference look for next year?

The conference did pretty well on signing day. SDSU and NM had some upgrades. There are still 2 years in the BCS evaluation period coming up. I hope the other teams recruited some quick fixes to plug into the lineup next season.



New Mexico can't be worst than last year plus they were a very young team. SDSU looks to have upgrade their team. UNLV has a new coach hopefully he swims instead of sinking.



Considering we have so much time until next season, why not start a thread each week and look at one of the teams? Some links to articles about them, even inviting one of their fans to come and tell us what they see for their team.

Here are the last 3 years of scout ratings for recruiting classes:

TEAM 2010 2009 2008

BYU 22 40 57

UTAH 52 55 65

TCU 64 54 114

AF 81 118 78

CSU 90 107 94

UNLV 92 84 82

SDSU 77 100 96

NM 80 87 108

WY 102 95 106



And rivals:

TEAM 2010 2009 2008

BYU 40 50 83

UTAH 32 44 60

TCU 46 46 96

AF 108 118 101

CSU 58 101 90

UNLV 101 81 109

SDSU 73 103 77

NM 80 83 90

WY 101 83 96



I doubt that TCU recruiting improved that much but that the site's are giving them more respect for their work. Most years BYU has the best in conference. I would ignore AF due to consistently performing much better than their rankings. It looks like SDSU did much better this year and Rivals really likes CSU's class. Also the number of classes in the 100's are down. I wonder did Wyoming do that poorly or are them misranked?

Not to poor cold water on your hopes, but I just don't see UNLV, SDSU, NM or Wyo being anything but bottom dwellers for a long time. All four schools have proven a serious difficulty in recruiting talent. None of these four schools have an serious football tradition (Wyoming might be an exception). All four schools have lousy stadiums (SDSU the lone exception) and facilities. All four schools have serious recruiting issues; who want to play in Wyoming? or Albuquerque? UNLV is a gambling, pro sports oriented town will little community support. SDSU and UNLV cannot recruit against the Pac-10 or against BYU and Utah, so they get all the leftovers, rejects, and problem kids. Honestly, I don't see how these schools survive financially. Football supposedly finances all the other sports (more or less), and none of these schools get any attendance at games or TV revenue. If it could be done, I would jettison all four of these schools and try to pick up Boise, Fresno, Nevada, Colorado...

bball wrote:
Not to poor cold water on your hopes, but I just don't see UNLV, SDSU, NM or Wyo being anything but bottom dwellers for a long time. All four schools have proven a serious difficulty in recruiting talent. None of these four schools have an serious football tradition (Wyoming might be an exception). All four schools have lousy stadiums (SDSU the lone exception) and facilities. All four schools have serious recruiting issues; who want to play in Wyoming? or Albuquerque? UNLV is a gambling, pro sports oriented town will little community support. SDSU and UNLV cannot recruit against the Pac-10 or against BYU and Utah, so they get all the leftovers, rejects, and problem kids. Honestly, I don't see how these schools survive financially. Football supposedly finances all the other sports (more or less), and none of these schools get any attendance at games or TV revenue. If it could be done, I would jettison all four of these schools and try to pick up Boise, Fresno, Nevada, Colorado...

It's fine if UNLV, SDSU, NM and WYO are bottom dwellers - every conference needs someone to come in last. All that matters is that the win OUT OF CONFERENCE...which means they need to stop selling their souls to take guaranteed losses (unless a WYO beating TENN on the road can happen...)

CSU was a top 25 team when Calhoun played there. I am hoping that he can bring them back. His first year was a success and he started last year off right but then it fell apart. I suspect this is an important year for his program. He also has AF in state and they have been successful. That could aid him.



With some new coaches in the conference, there are chances of turning things around.



Yes we have to have bottom dwellers but it can't be half of the conference. Also the bottom needs to change each year. A team should be able to use redshirts and transfers to have a good season once every 4 or 5 years.