I would like to see Sam Houston make a move to the Sunbelt or Conference USA, or perhaps AAC. Now is the time for them to make a move.
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They’re certainly good enough, but look at that attendance in 2019
Oklahoma Panhandle- 4,942
Incarnate Word- 8,196
Lamar- 4,047
Nicholls- 3,953
Northwestern State- 4,280
Houston Baptist- 3,849
I’m not sure any of the conferences would be interested in that.
Probably
Looks like Incarnate Word fans travel well.
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How does that compare with Rice?
Arguably baseball may be the top sport over there
Yea…their attendance is awful. Average under 5K. Rice averaged 22K in 2019. North Dakota State averaged 17K if I remember.
Jackson State averaged 33K?? Wow.
Deion sanders effect
The WAC talked to them during their death-throes, IIRC. My read at the time is that they did have some interest but not in the WAC (which turned out to be smart, even if they are joining the WAC now).
I don’t know how you get past the anemic attendance issue. They couldn’t draw even close to 10,000 in 2012 or 2013, years that they made the national championship game.
Sam Houston is perfectly welcome staying on this board. I’m simply not going to glom onto a drumbeat that forces a board member to move.
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One of the tough things about Sam Houston is that it is truly a commuter school. The local, static population is around 30k with another 10k of students in the Spring and Fall semesters. The problem is that as soon as Friday classes are over, students tend to return to home, which is generally somewhere south of Huntsville. Growing up in Huntsville and attending SHSU a couple of years, I vividly remember Huntsville being a bustling minitropolis from Monday through Friday and then a complete ghosttown on the weekends. The Sam football attendance is very representative of this. I don’t think they will ever draw well.
They are joining the WAC already.
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True.
There has been some discussion on the internet, however, that those new Texas WAC schools may eventually attempt to elevate the conference to I-FBS.
We’ll see.
For now, I agree with the people above. As good a I-FCS program as SHSU is, it is exactly that in terms of attendance and fan following. Or at least, it is for now.
When I went there back in the late 80’s early 90’s everyone just went home to Houston for the weekend instead of staying for the ball games.
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Yeah I kind of thought WAC football was coming back as FBS then realized it’s a new FCS conference for football.
I think you are right. Seems like kind of a “let’s see how this goes and maybe we’ll all move up as a conference to FBS” situation.
WAC hoops will be kind of cool. It’s probably going to still be one bid most years but where the winner could be a 12-13 instead of a 15 and maybe get a second bid here and there.
What is their stadium capacity? I’ve been to some games there when the stands were full. It just doesn’t hold many.
This is on Point. When I was at SHSU late 70s–early 80s, it was called toothbrush Univ. Btw 12-1:00 after classes were over on Friday we usually had a caravan headed to I-45 S. We were from all over Metro Houston - Spring Branch, Oak Forest, Meyerland etc. My first 2 yrs I probably went Home 90% of the time - 65 mins driveway to driveway. I hate to say but I went to many Coog gms on Sat nite w my buddies to watch UH play vs A&M, Arky etc at the Dome. Fast frwd 40 yrs I do meet up w former Alums n go there at least couple times during Football Season. I guess I’m part of attendance issue in that I’m going to Coog gms instead of BearKat gms. 
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10-12k.
I had a girlfriend at UH who first went to Sam for a year before transferring to UH. She was a hard working student who was quite disappointed that Sam turned out to be very lacking in school spirit. She stayed on campus on weekends for a while but then just said screw it and headed back to Friendswood.
When Abilene Christian and TX State made the jump, they both upgraded their stadiums. Has Sam made plans to do that?