WAC baseball will go
to one division in ’99

The change will help
conference teams get into
postseason play

By Al Chase
Star-Bulletin

The Western Athletic Conference athletic directors have approved a plan that would eliminate the present three-division setup in baseball for the 1999 season.

The 11 baseball-playing schools would be in one division and play each other every year using a home-and-away, two-year schedule. That translates into 30 conference games. For Hawaii, there would be five three-game conference series at Rainbow Stadium and five three-game series on the road.

Grand Canyon University would no longer be an associate conference member for baseball.

The top six teams would qualify for the WAC postseason tournament.

"The power rating for the conference will go up with this plan," University of Hawaii head baseball coach Les Murakami said. "It's what the coaches have wanted all along."

New Mexico baseball coach Rich Alday, who is a member of the NCAA Selection Committee, told the WAC coaches at their meeting last summer that he had a difficult time convincing the committee to take a second team from the conference because of the WAC's low power rating.

Eventually, Fresno State was picked and proved a worthy selection by advancing to the championship game of the regional hosted by Stanford.

FSU coach Bob Bennett said he is 100 percent behind the move.

"It's better for the power rating. It's a lot cleaner. With three divisions, you never know who's winning and, with the top six qualifying for the tournament, you'll get the best six teams.

"This takes care of different parts of the conference being weak. It also encourages someone who wants to win the conference title to play better nonconference opponents."

The WAC lost its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the 1996 season, but got it back for the 1997 campaign. Any improvement in nonconference schedules would also increase the chances of more than one team being selected.

The WAC schools playing baseball besides Hawaii are Air Force, Brigham Young, Fresno State, Nevada-Las Vegas, New Mexico, Rice, San Jose State, San Diego State, Texas Christian and Utah.

The site of the 1998 WAC postseason tournament has not been decided, but the process is ongoing with bids due Dec. 1.

The WAC opened the bidding to all schools and any outside interests, such as the San Diego Sports Council, which underwrote the tournament hosted by San Diego State last year.

UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida said that Hawaii is not submitting a bid at this time, but that position could change.

Once the bids are in, the WAC Council will decide if they are appropriate, especially in terms of the financial guarantees. If the Council accepts a bid, the site will be named, if not, the bids will be reopened.

Yoshida indicated UH could become a player in the bidding at that time.