The Wichita State Shockers have been one of the better basketball programs in the country the last few years, but now they could be ready to make an impact in another sport. The school has not had a football program since 1986, but the university could be looking to bring it back.
However, the thought of bringing back football may be taking a back seat for the time being. According to a report by CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, the Shockers want to make a conference move and they have already approached the Mountain West about making the jump.
Wichita State has called the Missouri Valley Conference home since 1946 and the conference reportedly knows of their plans to possibly leave. This could hurt the conference in the long run as they just recently lost perennial power Creighton to the Big East, replacing them with Loyola Chicago, previously of the Horizon League.
The Mountain West currently has only 11 basketball-only member as Hawaii, a member of every other sport, plays basketball in the Big West, which they won last season. The move for the Shockers would make sense, but conference commissioner Craig Thompson doesn’t seem to believe that the Shockers will be welcomed in.
“It ain’t going to be us,” Thompson said on the team’s intentions to leave the Missouri Valley and join the Mountain West.
The Shockers have also considered possible moves to the AAC and Conference USA, so it looks like a move could be coming soon. If that happens and football does come back, where exactly would that leave the team to play and would it be at the FCS or FBS level?
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
