West Texas A&M President Dr. Walter Wendler wasn’t the first person to envision a conference consisting of only in-state institutions. Still, he is the first university president in Texas to write about the possibility. While the major collegiate universities are forming conferences that span the country, many across the Non-FBS landscape long for a return to conferences focusing on regionalization.
In 2021, Oklahoma state representative Mark Vancuren from Owasso proposed a radical change. He explored the idea of a conference consisting of all 11 NCAA Division II institutions in Oklahoma, which are currently spread across three conferences: the Lone Star Conference (LSC), the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (MIAA), and the Great American Conference (GAC). Vancuren believed combining these schools into one conference would cut travel time, lower costs for games, and reinvigorate in-state rivalries.