I’ve made jokes about the demise of the Western Athletic Conference. But I never took my own jokes seriously. But now, one has to consider how you write the obituary for the WAC, which seems on a collision course with extinction – at least in terms of football.

News broke this weekend that Utah State and San Jose State are close to signing on the dotted line with the Mountain West, a move that would bolster the league after the departures of Boise State and TCU. Then came the news that Conference USA is nearing completion on a deal that would snag texas-San Antonio and Louisiana Tech to help replace the schools it lost to the Big East.

And you thought you were having a bad weekend? In just two years the WAC has gone from a fairly secure league to one that, theoretically, will only be fielding Olympic sports starting in the fall of 2013.

Why? Well, if these defections hold – and I see no reason for them to fall through – the WAC will be left with three football playing schools for the 2013 season – Idaho, New Mexico State and texas State.

All three of these teams, at one time, jumped ship to join the WAC. Idaho and New Mexico State left the Sun Belt Conference. texas State left the Southland Conference. Now they face the prospect of having no home at all.

So what can the WAC do? What can these three teams do? Here are a few ideas:

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From the unimaginable amount of dreck that has come from the Bobby Petrino mess at Arkansas, there could be a silver lining for Hogs fans, and that silver lining for Arkansas may be Phillip Fulmer.

Several news outlets reported today that the University of Arkansas and Phillip Fulmer have talked about the possibility of the former Tennessee coach replacing the disgraced Petrino. Now, it’s all very preliminary and there are some possible road blocks. First, others have expressed interest in the job, including a very surprising former coach – Steve Mariucci. I’m not sure why the Mooch would want to leave his cushy gig with the NFL Network, but hey, it’s out there now. Plus, you can make a case that promoting from within is a better option at this point in the offseason, since interim coach Taver Johnson knows the players and knows the system. Promoting Johnson would be less disruptive.

But the New Orleans Saints flirted with Bill Parcells before finally promoting Joe Vitt to be the interim coach with the Saints during Sean Payton’s suspension in 2012 (of course, that’s after Vitt serves his own six-game suspension). So the Razorbacks are doing their due diligence, as they should.

How do I see it? I think Fulmer is a great choice, no matter the time of year. Here are some reasons why:

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Matthew Postins was invited yet again on Barnhart and Durham show this morning in Atlanta.  Listen to the podcast below to hear the segment.

Matthew joined B&D to talk about Georgia State joining the Sun Belt

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Until today when several news outlets, including CBSSports.com reported that the athletic directors of the Sun Belt Conference voted to extend Georgia State an invitation to join the league in 2013.

I have to admit, I like being right. Last year’s article can be found here.

At the time I made the following case — Georgia State’s location in Atlanta would enhance the Sun Belt’s media package, improve the possibility of creating a 12-team league and would yield a conference title game and give the conference three Top 20 media markets. The Panthers could compete immediately in the Sun Belt. And the head coach, Bill Curry, would provide the same sort of national respect for the league that Howard Schnellenberger created at Florida Atlantic. Now there’s one additional criteria:

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