wac526

SoCalHoops College News Report

Pretty WACky: Less Is More As
WAC Agrees To Split Up--(May 26, 1998)

Just when we were getting ready to do a full blown review of Western Athletic Conference recruiting, one-half of the 16-team Western Athletic Conference have announced their intention to leave the league and form a new conference. Utah, New Mexico, Brigham Young, UNLV, Air Force, Colorado State, San Diego State and Wyoming said they will ask the NCAA to recognize the new conference immediately. The other schools in the WAC are Texas-El Paso, Texas Christian, Fresno State, Tulsa, Hawaii, Southern Methodist, Rice and San Jose State.

A University of Utah news release said the schools "made their decision after concluding that the present 16-team conference has been unable to achieve its intended goals, and that the challenges faced by the conference are insurmountable." Citing the loss of traditional rivalries, rising travel costs and insufficient revenue growth, eight of the 16 Western Athletic Conference schools announced plans Tuesday to form their own league.

The release said that the principal problems cited by the defecting schools include "a lack of any natural affinity" among the conference member teams, a breakdown in traditional rivalries, hefty travel expenses and the "inability of the present conference to achieve greater national recognition and TV revenues." The release said the decision to leave the conference "was reached reluctantly." Lee Bartlett, assistant to the president of BYU for communications, confirmed the conference breakup. Bartlett stressed this was not a movement solely pushed by one or two schools, but all eight together. "It's very much a joint decision among these eight schools and the product of a lot of effort to find answers to questions that proved to be insurmountable."

The conference became the largest college league in the nation in 1996, when it expanded to 16 teams. The teams were organized into two eight-team divisions, which ended some traditional rivalries of the 36-year-old conference.

"You've got a group of eight institutions that are committed to making a new conference work," said Colorado State president Al Yates, who is also chairman of the WAC board of directors. "We've spent most of our time in conversation trying to respond to the question, 'Is there a way to make this 16-team conference work?' Our conclusion in all that was that there was not," Yates said.

New Mexico athletic director Rudy Davalos put it more bluntly. "The 16-team league was not going to work. It wasn't the fault of the commissioner or any school. It was just one of those unmanageable type numbers," Davalos said. The schools not planning to leave the WAC are Fresno State, Hawaii, Rice, San Jose State, Southern Methodist, Texas Christian, Texas-El Paso and Tulsa. None were charter members of the conference when it formed in 1962.

"I obviously knew that there were problems out there," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said. "Needless to say, I was shocked and surprised, not necessarily surprised, that this is what ended up happening, but I think the timing of it was more surprising."

Presidents of the defecting schools said they will honor their 1998-99 athletic schedules and withdraw from the WAC on June 30, 1999.

"As a charter member of the Western Athletic Conference, the University of Wyoming does not take this decision lightly," Wyoming president Philip Dubois said. "We take this step reluctantly, but in the best long-term interests of our university, our athletic program and our fans."

Founded as a six-team conference in 1962, the WAC originally consisted of Arizona, Arizona State, Wyoming, Brigham Young, Utah and New Mexico. UTEP and Colorado State were added in 1967, and the landscape remained unchanged until Arizona and Arizona State left for the Pac-10 in 1978. San Diego State, Hawaii, Air Force and Fresno State joined the league from 1978-80, and the conference remained at 10 teams until the 1996 expansion. The WAC became the nation's largest college league in 1996 when it added Southwest Conference refugees Rice, TCU, and SMU, former Missouri Valley Conference member Tulsa and former Big West participants UNLV and San Jose State.

"Right now we're kind of in a state of shock. We're trying to regroup and see where everybody is at," Tulsa athletic director Judy MacLeod said. With Hawaii and the Texas schools separated by about 3,900 miles and four time zones, travel costs were a tremendous burden for WAC teams. The costs, coupled with lagging revenue and a proposed realignment that would have separated rivals such as Colorado State and Air Force, created unrest among the eight defecting schools.

"If you're looking for reasons for today's decision, they'd definitely have to be linked to the financial impact that 16 schools have had -- or the lack of financial impact," Benson said. "My biggest challenge was to create a financial source that was enough to satisfy 16 mouths. Obviously we weren't able to do that. ... To give it two years is unfortunate." Benson said the conference generated $12 million in revenue during the 1997-98 academic year. All television and bowl contracts could be in jeopardy if the WAC breaks up -- a scenario that Benson sees as most likely.

"It's obviously too soon to be able to accurately determine what their overall intentions are," Benson said of the defecting schools. "If they were looking to send a message, it's a strong message. No one has indicated to me that there's room for negotiations." Speculation about some schools leaving intensified May 5 after WAC athletic directors voted 13-3 to split the league into two permanent divisions. San Diego State president Stephen Weber said Utah, BYU, Colorado State, Wyoming and Air Force officials made their final decision during a meeting Friday at Denver International Airport. San Diego State, UNLV and New Mexico were then asked to join them.

"Certainly from our point of view, the choice between whether we would like to play with these folks or the other folks, these are the people that our fans have more interest in," Weber said. Benson said he will talk to the remaining schools as well as schools outside the conference to see if the WAC has a future beyond 1999. "I look at this as one more challenge to try to recreate the Western Athletic Conference," he said. "It was founded in 1962 and I certainly am not anticipating or expecting it to dissolve under my watch."

Just as interestingly is the question of whether the members of the WAC considered the issue of existing television contracts before voting to split the WAC. The WAC's basketball (and football) contracts with ESPN run through 2001 (and 2000 in the case of football). Actually it would seem not to matter because these contracts are "subject to termination or renegotiation" in the event that league membership changes.

"All of our current contracts are under the umbrella of the Western Athletic Conference and are subject to continued membership provisions," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said. "This will cause all of our contracts ... to be looked at and scrutinized to determine what the validity of those contracts would be post-June 30, 1999."

"One thing I do know is our contract, which is a five-party contract, stipulates very clearly that if the makeup of any of the three conferences (WAC, Pac-10 and Big 12) is reduced, that we have the option to terminate or negotiate. It's an 'out' clause," Reid said.

Bowls aside, an eight-team WAC consisting of Fresno State, Hawaii, Rice, San Jose State, Southern Methodist, Texas Christian, Texas-El Paso and Tulsa could have a tough time surviving. Benson said he will consider asking other teams to join the WAC. Schools left out of expansion in 1996 included Nevada, Utah State, New Mexico State, North Texas State and Boise State. Adding more teams still would not solve the WAC's current problems of lagging revenue, rising travel costs and a lack of nationally recognized athletic programs. "These are important issues for all of us," San Jose State president Robert Caret said. "Obviously, the WAC presidents will be discussing this in depth at their annual meeting this weekend. That will give us an opportunity to take a closer look at all the information and make some choices on how best to proceed."