Texas State "heavy favorite" to join Pac-12, LaTech favored to join Sun Belt

[JTApps1]

UNLV may be holding out for the B12.

They better figure out their financial issues first.

[hapapp]

Earlier this week, the NCAA turned down Sac State's waiver petition to join FBS without a conference affiliation.

They lawyered up immediately and the NCAA hasn't fared too well lately where trade practices are concerned. I would be shocked if Sac St. is not playing FBS football in 2026.

They did give Liberty a waiver prior to CUSA taking them in.

[AppStFan1]

Earlier this week, the NCAA turned down Sac State's waiver petition to join FBS without a conference affiliation.

They lawyered up immediately and the NCAA hasn't fared too well lately where trade practices are concerned. I would be shocked if Sac St. is not playing FBS football in 2026.

They did give Liberty a waiver prior to CUSA taking them in.

I mentioned that before. My question is what did they have that Sac State does not which made the NCAA give them a waiver without push back?

[AppWyo]

Earlier this week, the NCAA turned down Sac State's waiver petition to join FBS without a conference affiliation.

They lawyered up immediately and the NCAA hasn't fared too well lately where trade practices are concerned. I would be shocked if Sac St. is not playing FBS football in 2026.

They did give Liberty a waiver prior to CUSA taking them in.

I mentioned that before. My question is what did they have that Sac State does not which made the NCAA give them a waiver without push back?

The rules are in place to prevent what happened to FAMU back in the early 2000's. They became an independent and had to play schools that they were unable to compete with to pay the bills and left the school devastated. The NCAA did not want that to happen again.

[AppStFan1]

Earlier this week, the NCAA turned down Sac State's waiver petition to join FBS without a conference affiliation.

They lawyered up immediately and the NCAA hasn't fared too well lately where trade practices are concerned. I would be shocked if Sac St. is not playing FBS football in 2026.

They did give Liberty a waiver prior to CUSA taking them in.

I mentioned that before. My question is what did they have that Sac State does not which made the NCAA give them a waiver without push back?

The rules are in place to prevent what happened to FAMU back in the early 2000's. They became an independent and had to play schools that they were unable to compete with to pay the bills and left the school devastated. The NCAA did not want that to happen again.

I remember that being the reason for the rule. My question is that Liberty got the waiver so what did Sac State lack that made the NCAA turn them down but approve Liberty right off the bat? Is it that Liberty has way more money or what?

[AtlAppMan]

They lawyered up immediately and the NCAA hasn't fared too well lately where trade practices are concerned. I would be shocked if Sac St. is not playing FBS football in 2026.

They did give Liberty a waiver prior to CUSA taking them in.

I mentioned that before. My question is what did they have that Sac State does not which made the NCAA give them a waiver without push back?

The rules are in place to prevent what happened to FAMU back in the early 2000's. They became an independent and had to play schools that they were unable to compete with to pay the bills and left the school devastated. The NCAA did not want that to happen again.

I remember that being the reason for the rule. My question is that Liberty got the waiver so what did Sac State lack that made the NCAA turn them down but approve Liberty right off the bat? Is it that Liberty has way more money or what?

I remembered bits and pieces of the Florida A&M situation but the video provided many more details. IMO most of their failure was a byproduct of very poor planning and execution on the FAMU administration. Yes the NCAA rules were part of the challenges, Boise State and Marshall had already made the move quite successfully prior to this point. I would say 90% responsibility was on an ill prepared and grossly over zealous FAMU administration. They saw previous moves and assumed everything would just fall into place without the hard groundwork needed to achieve results. The NCAA rule changes were put in place to prevent schools from being stupid.

I think Liberty had the wise enough admin and certainly deep enough pockets to guarantee success. Don’t knot anything about Sac St situation. Having a conference helps a lot. FAMU went Indy on ALL sports which was idiotic proving more bad management decision. They are the poster boys for everything NOT to do when moving up. They should not blame NCAA for sure.

[AppWyo]

One of the biggest things that Liberty has that FAMU does not have is MONEY.

[AppStFan1]

One of the biggest things that Liberty has that FAMU does not have is MONEY.

I was asking the difference in Liberty and Sac State though. I know Liberty has more money than them as well but I think Sac State is in good enough shape that they would be fine. They know the fee to move up and have the money to pay it.

[AppStFan1]

https://austinsportsjournal.com/2025/06 ... n-targets/

[AppStFan1]

STATEMENT FROM COMMISSIONER GILL ON CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT

“With Texas State’s recent announcement of its planned departure from the Sun Belt Conference, I want to personally take a moment to thank the Bobcat staff for their collaboration and leadership through a transformative era in college athletics from the COVID-19 pandemic to name, image and likeness to the most recent round of realignment.

Since expanding to 14 football-playing members, the Sun Belt Conference has experienced the best three-year stretch in the conference’s nearly 50-year history.

Over the span, the league has led all non-autonomy conferences in football postseason representation for three-straight years—including leading the nation with 12 bowl teams in 2023; set a conference record with a non-autonomy leading 37 NCAA postseason and bowl berths during the 2023-24 season—when it was a multi-bid league in women’s soccer, men’s soccer, volleyball, football, softball and baseball; and established itself as a power player as 1-of-5 conferences with multiple appearances in NCAA Division I national championship finals in 2024-25.

I will continue to update our stakeholders on developments whenever possible as we work to ensure the sustained rise of the Sun Belt Conference—a collection of like-minded, regional rivals with winning football traditions, passionate fanbases and enduring commitments to excellence in all sports. The Sun Belt Conference is rising, and our best days are ahead.”

[BUTCH1991]

Winning football traditions? Guess the conference will be shrinking instead of growing - bye bye Georgia State & ULM! LOL

[T-Dog]

Texas State has to win 9 games this coming season to have an all time Sun Belt win percentage better than Idaho.

[AppWyo]

Let's not get delusional here, the last two season Texas State has been 8-5. The last time they had a winning season before that at 7-5 was 2013 their first year in the SBC before App and GS joined the SBC. https://www.winsipedia.com/texas-state

GSU has had more winning seasons in that same time span with five. https://www.winsipedia.com/georgia-stat ... ana-monroe

ULM on the other hand, have not.

It seems that Texas State knows that they are changing conferences but have no clue as to who is in the new conference because they do not have anyone else in their announcement video than themselves.

I believe that JMU was ready to move, I do not think that Texas State is ready to change conferences.

[AtlAppMan]

In fairness to Tx State I can’t say it is a bad move for them, the money looks good now and the PAC is basically the best of MWC and WaSt and Oregon St. I probably would do the same if I were them. How it works in long run only time will tell. They don’t has much history to this point so maybe they make it work in the West.

For us I want SBC to ONLY add schools that add value and if we have to wait then wait. Eventually ditch ULZm as they have no commitment to improve. This formula is how we should proceed.

[hapapp]

With 40,000 students Texas State has a lot of potential to tap. I think it's a no brainer for them. They have very good facilities and an overall solid athletic program and the football program seems headed in the right direction.

[Saint3333]

Good move for Texas St, PAC is definitely a stronger conference, congrats Bobcats. Now the SBC should be patient, bringing in LA Tech that hit their ceiling 20 years ago would be a missed opportunity.

[AppStFan1]

Good move for Texas St, PAC is definitely a stronger conference, congrats Bobcats. Now the SBC should be patient, bringing in LA Tech that hit their ceiling 20 years ago would be a missed opportunity.

Agreed. There are several programs on the rise out there that I think would be even more clear to add if we wait 3-4 more years and see what happens when the current AAC TV deal is up.

[JTApps1]

Good move for Texas St, PAC is definitely a stronger conference, congrats Bobcats. Now the SBC should be patient, bringing in LA Tech that hit their ceiling 20 years ago would be a missed opportunity.

My biggest concern with LT is that they'll never get back to where they once were in football. Kind of like a less accomplished USM.