WKU Athletics: With Conference Realignment Inevitable, Where Will WKU Go?

If you’ve been on Twitter (or one of the WKU football or basketball groups on Facebook too) you’ve probably seen where there’s a lot of…

If you’ve been on Twitter (or one of the WKU football or basketball groups on Facebook too) you’ve probably seen where there’s a lot of potential shakeup coming to Conference USA. To get you up to date with what has happened, I’ll share what’s happened as well as my own thoughts on this whole situation.

As it stands right now, six C-USA teams look to join the American Athletic Conference.

Six (yes 6) schools look to join the AAC. UAB, North Texas, Rice, FAU, Charlotte, and UTSA. That’s a major gut-punch to C-USA losing that many schools at one time.

While we could argue that WKU has better overall athletic programs than most of them, it all comes down to market size. Charlotte, San Antonio, Denton/Dallas, Houston, Birmingham, and Boca Raton/Miami are much more enticing to add over Bowling Green, KY sadly.

But the worst part is that those are just the schools going to the AAC.

It’s possible at least three more will go to the Sun Belt with one being confirmed at this point.

Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss are potentially looking to join the Sun Belt and sources close to USM are talking like it’s already a done deal for the Golden Eagles.

So that’s a potential of nine (yes 9) total teams leaving the C-USA. But will Western Kentucky be one of them?

Here is the latest statement from WKU AD Todd Stewart:

To me, he’s just reiterating how dominate WKU has been since joining C-USA but doesn’t really give us any indication of whether or not Western Kentucky is actively looking to move conferences.

At this point, I haven’t seen a single reputable source mention WKU to any type of conference movement other than an article from The Athletic by Chris Vannini saying the Tops are a long shot to rejoin the Sun Belt.

To me it shows that either Todd Stewart is content to stay in C-USA and wants to continue to win more conference titles there or that they are trying to move but are keeping it very hush hush.

Personally if Marshall moves on from C-USA, I really don’t see why Todd would be happy to stay in the conference (other than to save money by not paying exit fees or just to stay and hopefully win more). Staying just for the MTSU rivalry would be pointless because their program has fallen off a ton in most major sports and their fan base has dwindled down to nothing.

Staying in C-USA

So let’s say the Tops stay in Conference USA, who would be added to the conference? There’s been some speculation of JMU and Liberty.

Both James Madison and Liberty would be solid additions if they were to join. JMU is known for their FCS powerhouse football program (they’ve literally hosted ESPN College Gameday before in 2017) and Liberty is great at both football under head coach Hugh Freeze and their basketball program has had a ton of success and has made the NCAA Tournament twice and has gone 115-23 the past four seasons.

If these are the only two teams to join, that doesn’t add a whole lot number wise but does talent wise. At this point C-USA commissioner Judy MacLeod will have to look at FCS level schools if she wants to get the conference back up to 12 schools. You would have to have a minimum of eight schools to keep the conference afloat and if all nine schools leave, that leaves just five left with no additions.

If WKU gets left behind and doesn’t go anywhere, I feel like C-USA is still a very winnable league for them in most aspects. Obviously men’s basketball is possible but the addition of Liberty can make things more challenging by having them in conference but at least the winners of the last three C-USA titles would be gone (if ODU and Marshall both go Sun Belt).

Football wise, we expected the Tops to have a better record than they do this year but moving forward it will still be challenging with Liberty and JMU both having solid football programs and both of them presumably joining the East division (if it’s still East/West divisions when all the dust settles).

In my opinion, WKU staying in C-USA isn’t the worst possible thing to happen as long as the conference is still somewhat competitive. The TV deal obviously still needs to get revamped but with so many schools leaving and not too many big national names joining, I’m not sure if much changes at all.

If WKU wants to make a move, continuing to win and becoming nationally relevant is the most important thing they can do. Had the men’s basketball team won a C-USA title or two the last few years and if football had not fallen off as bad as it did with Sanford being there, maybe the Tops would be moving up but ultimately, both of those things happening have probably cost them a chance at a big conference move (not including the fact that Bowling Green just isn’t as big of a market).

Moving from C-USA

With the AAC taking six teams that aren’t WKU, I don’t see them joining it now. No way they add seven schools at this point and if WKU were real contenders I feel like they would be moving on with everyone else in C-USA instead of potentially waiting a year later like they did when moving from the Sun Belt.

Sun Belt to me doesn’t seen very realistic either. After leaving the conference once, I don’t think they would want the Tops back after the way they already left once so to me, that bridge is essentially burned.

So what options are left, then? The MAC is a possibility. WKU would be the most southern team in the conference if that were to happen but it has to maybe remain on the table. If WKU were to move to the MAC I feel like it would be a step backwards. It would give football and basketball a major advantage and put them in a better position to win their conference but as far as relevance, the MAC has been just a tiny blip on the national radar the past few seasons. TV deal could potentially be better (like playing on ESPN networks more) but on weird days and times.

What happens now?

Ultimately, all we can do is hurry up and wait. It’s possible that WKU could move but decide to wait a year after a bunch of teams leave like the year before the Tops made the jump from Sun Belt to C-USA in 2012. I still haven’t seen Western Kentucky mentioned with any big national media folks as candidates to move so realistically I’d just expect the Tops to stay in C-USA for the foreseeable future.

As far as what teams will be in the same conference as them, that’s still up in the air. If Marshall leaves C-USA, I’ll be really disappointed to see that. The Moonshine Throwdown has become one of my favorite rivalries since the 2014 game on Black Friday and if WKU were to lose that, a lot of fans would want to see it happen in the non-conference schedule or something.

Todd Stewart has transitioned WKU through conferences before so obviously I trust his judgement but with so many good teams leaving, it makes me wonder what would make C-USA worth staying in other than a better chance to win conference titles or simply just financial reasons. But if the teams that are left around WKU aren’t that great, it won’t help propel them too much on the national radar.

I know one of Todd’s favorite quotes is “you’re known by the company you keep” and if WKU stay in C-USA, I hope the teams that end up staying and also coming in are teams that help make Western Kentucky (as well as Conference USA) more nationally relevant than they are now.

What do you guys think? Do you want WKU to move on or stay where they are? Be sure to let us know! Shoot us a tweet @thetowelrackwku or comment on Facebook or Instagram.