The WAC has taken a big hit, losing its marquee teams to the Mountain West. With Boise State, Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii set to leave by the 2012 season, the WAC has already announced it would add FCS members Texas State and UT-San Antonio and is exploring adding other members as well. At the NCAA convention held last week in San Antonio, the WAC got a bid of good news in terms of its future relevancy. The WAC will be able to retain its automatic bids to NCAA tournaments in all sports when it goes through a transition period in 2012. The new rules say a conference must have seven active Division I members that sponsor men’s and women’s basketball and that the conference sponsor a minimum of six men’s sports and six women’s sports. The WAC’s membership for the 2012-13 season will include current members Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State and Utah State along with three new members announced last year: Denver (non-football), Texas State and UTSA.  That means the WAC will meet the new membership requirements. As for the transition from FCS to FBS, Texas State will begin its transition with the 2011 season and will count as an FBS opponent in 2012. It will be a full-fledged FBS member and bowl eligible in 2013.  UTSA follows one year later

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WAC gets news on membership status