BY now it's obvious that being left out of the loop has put the University of Hawaii athletic department's neck into one. Deserted ’Bows should
go it aloneThen again, could it be that Hawaii is as sneaky and conniving as the Exiting Eight that jumped the Western Athletic Conference earlier this week?
Were UH president Kenneth Mortimer and athletic director Hugh Yoshida feigning shock on Tuesday, when told that all the cool kids were going to a different party, and the Rainbows weren't invited?
Since everyone knew it was going to happen eventually, Hawaii of course had a contingency plan for a situation where the WAC explodes due to its own greed and gluttony and mediocrity. Right?
Mortimer and Yoshida are just doing too good a job of taking the high road and keeping all bridges intact, when it should be fear and loathing in Manoa time. This has got to be one of the greatest decoys of all time. What have they got up their sleeves?
The two options UH is pretending to consider -- begging to join the eight defectors or remaining in the wrecked WAC -- are like choosing between a firing squad or the electric chair. Either way you're dead.
So this has got to be a brilliant fake-out.
YOSHIDA gave it away when he used recruiting in Hawaii as a selling point for Utah, Brigham Young, San Diego State and UNLV to let the Rainbows into the private club. He can't seriously be saying, "Please let us join you, so you can continue to come play here every other year and pluck away our best high school players." That goes way against the party line.
And UH says it's willing to resume paying travel subsidies if allowed to join the deserters. That's just what a department, actually, make that a state, in dire financial straits needs to do -- throw money at ingrates like these, so the Rainbows can join their elite club as second-class citizens. If UH lets itself get pushed around like this now, what will stop more abuse later?
So that's another great feint. Just like bringing out the big political hammers. Gov. Ben Cayetano should have learned his lesson about messin' with UH sports last fall. And bless Sen. Dan Inouye's propensity for pork-barrel, but even the U.S.S. Missouri's range falls a little short of the Rocky Mountains. So forget politics -- that is, unless Ben and Dan have buddies with the TV networks.
YUP, it's all a big conspiracy to hide the real plan -- going independent. The new league will offer Hawaii a spot, to which it will say:
"Conference? We don't need no stinking conference!"
(At least for football. The Big West would be OK for the other sports, for now, anyway.)
The Rainbows have proven year after year that they can schedule some of the most attractive football programs in the nation. Weren't they playing some little school from South Bend last time we saw them?
And Arizona, Northwestern and Michigan are on this year's schedule because Hawaii is Hawaii, not because Hawaii is in a conference. Getting to play a 12th game doesn't hurt, either.
To succeed as an independent, the key is TV money. And TV money comes from scheduling big-name opponents. Home-and-home series with powerhouses might get the Rainbows slaughtered on the field, but it will get them back on track financially. And, dare we say it gives them a chance to join the upper tier? We're talking about being consistently good nationally, not just being competitive now and then in a mediocre conference.
Hawaii and the WAC were a bad fit from the start. The geography was impossible. The road murder. The lack of national respect a constant problem.
And when will people realize that Brigham Young doesn't really care about this so-called rivalry except that it helps them pick up a Peter Kendrick here and a Kurt Gouveia there?
So UH should go independent. Roll the dice and take a shot at the big time.
When your choices are following a gang like a pesty little wannabe or sitting on the Titanic, what have you got to lose?
Dave Reardon is a magazine editor and freelance
writer who has covered Hawaii sports since 1977.
He can be reached via the Star-Bulletin or
by email at dreardon@hmsa.com.
