WAC Basketball: Examining the 5 newcomer programs for 2021-22 season

What expansion means for WAC Basketball

Since the early part of the century, men’s basketball success in the WAC has run through Las Cruces. Since 2007 New Mexico State has won six regular-season titles and taken the conference tournament crown nine times. It was thought by some that when Grand Canyon arrived that they would provide some competition for the Aggies, but it wasn’t until last season that the Antelopes broke through against the Aggies and wrestled the tournament title away.

With the addition of these four schools from the Southland and Southern Utah the following year, that road to success may still run through New Mexico but the conference’s infrastructure just got a major upgrade.

Parity is one of the things that makes college basketball so much enjoyable than other sports, and that is one of the big pluses to the expansion in the WAC. In just a few years the WAC has gone from a conference struggling to stay afloat, to a deep mid-major one that could have any number of teams challenging for the title.

Next season, it will be more than just games between New Mexico State and Grand Canyon that will be worth watching. On paper at least, this expansion checks every box the WAC could hope for when it comes to men’s basketball.