The once-proud WAC has lost another member, before they even played a game.  Texas-San Antonio, which has only played ten DI football games, is bolting to C-USA. UTSA was supposed to join the WAC this year but three WAC schools (Fresno, Hawaii, and Nevada)  left after UTSA's decision

The league now stands with  Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico St., San Jose St., and Utah St.   Joining this year are Denver, Seattle, Texas St.,  Texas-Arlington.. Of the new teams, only Texas St. fields a football team and has just moved to D1. Boise St. joins in 2013 but not for football

So, they're left with an inadequate number of football schools, and a low-major basketball league.

The WAC has been around since 1962 and many of the top schools in the West have passed through the league.  Here's the list: Air Force, Arizona, Arizona St., Boise, BYU, Colorado St, UNLV, New Mexico, Rice, San Diego St., TCU, UTEP, Utah, and Wyoming

from MountainWestConnection.com

How can the WAC survive:

The most logical result for WAC survival will be ceasing to sponsor football. That move would allow them keep maintaining all their other sports. A reconfigured basketball conference only needs seven members to be an "automatic qualifying" conference, with “AQ” meaning the tournament champion will get an automatic bid to the NCAA basketball tournament. The WAC is expected to have just 5 teams for 2013 (Denver, Seattle, Boise State, New Mexico State, and Idaho) meaning they only need two more teams to remain a viable NCAA-recognized conference. Here is now the new WAC conference could look in 2013:

Seattle
Denver
Boise State
Idaho*
New Mexico State*
Utah Valley
Chicago State
Texas-Pan American
California State University-Bakersfield
New Jersey Institute of Technology
University of California-San Diego

 *Football programs for these two schools could either be closed down or transferred to another conference for football-only. Even if both Idaho and New Mexico State were to bolt for another conference, enough basketball-only schools are available to keep the WAC from disappearing.

Four of those schools are the remaining members of the Division I Great West Conference, which is a conference even in more trouble than the WAC. The GW does not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and, by next year,  could be down to four members: Utah Valley, Chicago State, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Texas-Pan American, and they are all looking around for a new home. The WAC could give them that. 

CSU Bakersfield is another Division I school looking for a league. They recently teamed with the University of California, San Diego who is planning a move to Division I in all sports except football, and attempted to join the Big West Conference. Both were refused membership. The two southern California schools could join the WAC simultaneously.

One columnist believes that the WAC's demise started in the 90's when they became a 16-team conference extending from Hawaii to Rice.  BYU and Utah didn't like the additional travel and left to form the MVC. Then, some of the WAC's eastern members joined Conference USA.

He believes the Big East is next, now that they've expanded from California to South Florida to Connecticut.  The other power conferences are hovering like vultures to pick off teams from the Big East.
***
Brett McMurphy of CBSSports wrote:
Of the 16 WAC teams from their 1996 boom, eight will be in the Mountain West in 2013, three will be in Conference USA, two will be in the Big East and one each will be in the Pac-12, Big 12 and an independent. None will still be in the WAC.

Maybe this is all payback -- albeit 50 years later -- for how the WAC started. Back in 1962 the league was founded with six members: Arizona, Arizona State, Brigham Young, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Because of the creation of the WAC both the Border Conference and the Skyline Eight Conference were forced to fold. 

The Border Conference was:  Arizona, Arizona St., N.M.State, UTEP, Hardin-Simmons and W. Texas Teachers.
The Skyline Eight was:   BYU, Colorado St., Denver, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Utah St., and Wyoming

 

Posted by plane129 on 5/3/2012 4:33:00 PM (view original):
Conference USA has added North Texas and Florida International from the Sun Belt and La. Tech from the WAC.  Charlotte (Atlantic 10) and Old Dominion (Colonial) may join them as well.

If Charlotte leaves, look for the Atlantic 10 to go for VCU and George Mason.  They added Butler yesterday

Posted by digitalv on 5/6/2012 7:41:00 PM (view original):

Posted by plane129 on 5/3/2012 4:33:00 PM (view original):
Conference USA has added North Texas and Florida International from the Sun Belt and La. Tech from the WAC.  Charlotte (Atlantic 10) and Old Dominion (Colonial) may join them as well.

If Charlotte leaves, look for the Atlantic 10 to go for VCU and George Mason.  They added Butler yesterday

wonder who the Horizon will add now. Possibly Oakland out of the Summit League?