McNeese Planning On Leaving The Southland Conference
I huge bombshell report has been released regarding the future of McNeese State Athletics.
The Southland Conference (SLC) was founded in 1963. McNeese joined in 1972. In two years the SLC has seen a total of four teams leave for the newly formed Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and one head over to the ASUN Conference.
Today Pete Thamel, a college football reporter for Yahoo Sports, is reporting that a source is telling him that two more teams are planning on leaving the Southland.
KPLC is reporting that McNeese officials told them that there is currently not an offer on the table from the WAC, but that they are in discussions with the conference.
If the WAC accepts McNeese, the Pokes will join former Southland members Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin, Abilene Christian, and Lamar.
I think this could potentially be a disastrous move for McNeese. The Western Athletic Conference has made it known that their end goal is to move their conference up to play FBS-level football.
FBS football teams must average a home game attendance of 15,000 fans per game over a two-year rolling period. Currently, McNeese can't draw that, unless we play Southern every week.
So what would happen when the WAC makes the jump to FBS? Would they have to drop McNeese and the Cowboys would have to look for a new home?
At this point, there are more questions than answers. And the answers can only be answered in the future. Maybe the glory days of Cowboy football return and the fans fill up The Hole every home game like they did in the 90s and early 2000s. Maybe the WAC never decides to move up to FBS. We'll just have to wait and see.
Famous McNeese Alumni