SoCalHoops College News

Utah Backs Out; Won't Play CSUN;
Some WAC Ramblings--(Oct. 29, 1998)

First the women's coach gets popped by the Feds for allegedly masterminding a drug deal, and then Utah's men's team says "No."   How much worse can it get?  Well, Rico Harris could change his mind. . . Nah, that won't ever happen.   But the LA Times did report today that only days after extending an offer to play a home-and-home men's basketball series with Cal State Northridge beginning next season, Utah decided not to come to Northridge. Maybe the new conference wants nothing to do with a team from. . . sniff. . .ahem. . .the "Big Sky."  Nope, not when you're from the MOUNTAIN WEST conference.

Actually, the real reason that Utah decided not to accept the offer to player, or more correctly, backed out on it's own offer to come to CSUN, is that next year they are scheduled to play in the John Wooden Classic, and they said they couldn't afford to make two trips to SoCal.  Ok. . .

And speaking of Utah, does anyone else find it ironic that the new Mountain West Athletic Conference actually consists of the same teams which formerly constituted the WAC before it was enlarged a few years ago?   Why not just tell all those other newcomers to the old WAC that they would just have to find a new name?  Well, here's why they chose the new name.  "The Mountain West Conference name ... brings to mind the geographic setting of our conference," said Colorado State University president Albert C. Yates, the president and treasurer of the new conference. The schools which decided last summer they were leaving the WAC to launch the Mountain West are Colorado State, Air Force, Brigham Young, UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State, Utah and Wyoming.  And in case you're interested, and you should be if you're a SoCal basketball fan because each of these teams will be traveling to San Diego at one point or another, the new conference officially starts up July 1, 1999. Craig Thompson, a commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference, last week was named to lead the new league. The Mountain West Conference has not selected its headquarters, but the prospective sites
reportedly have been narrowed to Las Vegas and Colorado Springs. The schools staying in the WAC are Southern Methodist, San Jose State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Rice, Texas Christian, Texas-El Paso and Tulsa. Talk about a conference with no geographic center or reason to exist, it's the WAC.  At least that's our opinion. 

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