UTSA leaving Southland?

Bear Fan 101 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 03, 2010 12:38 pm

http://www.collegesportingnews.com/entry.php?31-UTSA-Throws-Curveball-Announces-FBS-Plan

UTSA Throws Curveball - Announces FBS Plan
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by jplotkin
on 01-31-2010 at 03:39 PM (279 Views)

Just when you thought most of the discussion this off-season would strictly circulate around new coaches, recruiting and the Southland Conference efforts to land the Division I title game, UTSA completely veered the off-season chatter in a new direction.

UTSA, which plans to play their first season of intercollegiate football in 2011, announced through the San Antonio Express-News that they will not play in the SLC as expected in 2013.

Instead, athletic director Lynn Hickey plans to oversee a program that will fast track to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Hickey's staff is not going at this recklessly as some may counter...
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the article the blog references:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/college/local_colleges/UTSA_now_plans_to_go_it_alone_in_football.html

Web Posted: 01/31/2010 12:00 CST
UTSA now plans to go it alone in football
By Dan McCarney - Express-News

Switching gears from a tentative plan to join the Southland Conference in football, UTSA has charted a new course for its fledgling program.

University of Texas at San Antonio athletic director Lynn Hickey said the school, which is slated to begin play in 2011, would attempt to reach the NCAA’s top flight as an independent by its fifth season in 2015.

Should they do so, the Roadrunners would become one of just four independent football teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A). They would remain there indefinitely until an opportunity to move their entire athletic program into an FBS conference presents itself...

Honey Bear · **Posted:** Wed Feb 03, 2010 1:53 pm

Being blown out by the big boys will not be fan friendly. Hope they enjoy their annual .500 - or worse - seasons.

BearCountry · **Joined:** Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:13 pm **Posts:** 5426

You mean like ASU. :-$

2017Bear · **Joined:** Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:59 pm **Posts:** 1

Going straight to bowl won't work out. Baby steps, Baby steps!!! :shock:

Bear Fan 101 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 15, 2010 2:52 pm

found this at Katfans.com:
http://katfans.com/newforum/index.php?topic=170.0

here's the article link as well.
http://thestartingfive.net/2010/04/15/sean-mitchell-interviews-utsa-head-football-coach-larry-coker/

BearsFan52 · **Joined:** Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:45 pm **Posts:** 2575

Will they try to stay in SLC for other sports????

Bear Fan 101 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:44 am

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/04/odus-wilder-now-coach-answers

Bear Fan 101 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:45 am

BearsFan52 wrote:

Will they try to stay in SLC for other sports????

I doubt the SLC would allow them to do that, but I'm not on the SLC board, so who knows. But I find it hard to imagine that would happen, especially since La. Monroe did that for a while too...

Bear Fan 101 · **Posted:** Mon May 24, 2010 10:22 am

IF they could pull this off, that would be huge for UTSA as well...

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/missions_and_utsa_talk_about_teaming_up_94678639.html

Missions and UTSA talk about teaming up
Richard Oliver - Richard Oliver
Web Posted: 05/23/2010 12:00 CDT

The 125 acres is nestled against Loop 1604 between Farris Stadium and Babcock Road. Level and unremarkable, largely populated by scrub brush, mesquite and cactus, the landscape doesn't exactly stir the soul.

But for UTSA athletic director Lynn Hickey, it's a foundation for the future.

Hickey sees the property, just down the road from the burgeoning university, as the would-be home of the state's most ambitious athletic complex. Already poised to host construction of track and field and soccer facilities next spring, long-term plans have the site someday accommodating football practice and soccer fields, tennis courts and a wide array of other sports.

And, just maybe, San Antonio Missions baseball.

Earlier this month, Hickey sat down with Dave Elmore, owner of the city's minor-league baseball team, to discuss a possible partnership...

Bear Fan 101 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 02, 2010 8:05 am

http://thecabin.net/news/2010-05-30/hear-rumblings-some-kind-ncaa-shakeup-coming

McCollum's Column: Hear the rumblings? Some kind of NCAA shakeup is coming
By David McCollum

Quote:

...The University of Central Arkansas will likely eventually feel the effect, especially in football as a member of the Football Championship Series.

The NCAA has a moratorium of teams moving to a higher classification until 2011. Then, the jockeying will begin.

That brings us to the Southland Conference. Texas-San Antonio, which was set to be a football-playing member in the SLC in 2012, now plans to compete as FCS independent in football in 2011. Working along the template set by South Florida when it worked itself into membership in the Big East, UTSA will officially file its plans in 2012 to become a full-fledged FBS member by 2014 and will await a conference invitation, which is a certainty because of the San Antonio market. UTSA seems a natural for the Conference-USA western mix of Southern Miss, Tulane, Rice, Houston, SMU, Tulsa and UTEP.

It was questionable from the beginning how long UTSA would remain in the Southland, which consists of generally smaller schools in medium to small markets other than the major cities in Texas and Louisiana, where it is overshadowed by the major conferences.

A question at the next round of meetings by the SLC will be whether to allow UTSA to compete in the league in other sports while football is using that anchor to shop for an FBS home.

Texas State is in the midst of a serious and well-publicized fundraising and facility-enhancement drive to move to become an FBS member after the moratorium is lifted in 2011. The Sun Belt and the WAC are at the heart of that speculation for conference affiliation.

So, the Southland, which will have Lamar as a football-playing member in 2011, will not be the same after next season.

And beginning next season, the Missouri Valley, the WAC, Conference-USA and the Sun Belt will be evaluated with the possibility that one of those conferences will become part of the Bowl Championship Series.

What happens off the field and backstage in the NCAA Division I conferences this summer may be just as important as what happens on the field the rest of the year.

We hear the rumblings. We’ll see the ground shift beginning in 2011 and it’ll be interesting to see where are the pieces fall.

(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)

UCAMonkey · **Posted:** Fri Jun 04, 2010 9:11 pm

How will the Missouri Valley be considered a BCS conference when they are not even FBS?

Beary Manilow · **Posted:** Fri Jun 04, 2010 10:48 pm

Mountain West + David McCollum = Missouri Valley

UCAMonkey · **Posted:** Sat Jun 05, 2010 6:28 am

Beary Manilow wrote:

Mountain West + David McCollum = Missouri Valley

Moutain West will be the next BCS conference.

joshuca · **Posted:** Sat Jun 05, 2010 9:34 pm

Southland change puts kink in UTSA's plans

GALVESTON — UTSA's plans to ride its fledgling football program to a conference invitation in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision remain intact.
But the path leading toward that objective took another twist Friday when the Southland Conference's Board of Directors approved a measure that requires its members to operate all varsity sports within the league.

Passed by an 11-1 vote of member school presidents, the decision will take effect on July 1, 2011, a few months before the Roadrunners kick off their first season.

Bear Fan 101 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:43 am

more UTSA and maybe even Texas State speculation from what I'm guessing is a new UTSA fan site, utsatailgaters.com

http://www.utsatailgaters.com/football/articles/utsa-on-wacs-radar
Thus far the the summer of 2010 has left no shortage of surprises when it comes to realignment in the ranks of the BCS conferences. While most of the attention has surrounded the Big 12, Big 10 & Pac 10, don't forget about those non-BCS conferences.

Rumblings have surfaced about aspirations and movement ranging from the likes of Conference USA, the Sunbelt, Mountain West, to as far as the WAC. Most recently, the WAC announced that it would be losing its perennial power - Boise State to the MWC, effective July 1, 2011. The WAC is now currently left with eight teams. UTSAtailgaters was able to catch up with Commissioner Karl Benson for some Q&A about the WAC, College Football, and UTSA...

UCAFANS.COM | GO UCA BEARS!

UTSA leaving Southland?

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