Originally Posted by
zooropa
On travel costs:
1 - you're replacing a bus trip for half of the Summit with a flight (Oakland out, AFA/Denver in). That's unquestionably an increase in travel costs, on a per mile/per student basis for over a hundred student athletes and staff at almost every SL school (25 WSOC, 25 softball, 25 baseball, 15 WBB, 15 MBB+coaches, SID staff, 20 VB, etc.) Even if there's no appreciable change in costs for the I-29 schools, there will be a significant change for WIU, IUPUI, IPFW.
2 - you're imposing huge travel costs on AFA & Denver, regardless of how much you want to minimize costs to the rest of the SL.
And finally, the WAC isn't going anywhere as long as it has an autobid so this is a more or less moot discussion. It'll almost certainly have to drop football, but the Big Sky can't absorb and the MWC/Big West/WCC don't want the remnants of the WAC.