IT'S a jungle out there. Don’t rule out
‘rescheduling’ WAC
defectorsRainbow football coach Fred vonAppen isn't the only one discovering that life in college football is dog eat dog. So is Hugh Yoshida, the University of Hawaii athletic director.
Both are in the same boat. A lifeboat at the moment.
Yoshida schedules games. VonAppen's team plays them.
Were it that simple.
VonAppen's Rainbows are still looking for their first victory, and chances are, they won't find it tomorrow night at San Diego State.
Not just because of the Rainbows' inability to win on the road. They haven't shown they can win at home, either.
Meanwhile, Yoshida is scrambling to fill next year's football schedule. He thought he had it sewn up. But now Virginia has joined Toledo to just say no to coming here next year.
While Yoshida is still trying to get Toledo to keep its commitment, he doesn't plan to hold the Cavaliers to theirs. Not that he has a cavalier attitude about Virginia.
"The bottom line is that so much is happening on the national scene in college football and we have to be sensitive about things," said Yoshida, who is prepared to cut Virginia some slack.
IT seems BYU called Virginia about a home-and-home series for 1999 and 2000. And Virginia doesn't want to make two trips to the West. So it asked Yoshida if it could get out of its game with Hawaii next Nov. 27.
And Hawaii was only going to be the Cavaliers' 11th game next year. They weren't scheduling the 'Bows because they wanted, or needed, an extra game.
"It just shows that everyone's scrambling to fill out their football schedule," Yoshida said.
BYU's in the same boat because of the breakup of the Western Athletic Conference next year. BYU and Utah were on Hawaii's 1999 schedule, but were scratched after the great falling out.
I don't know if BYU sought out Virginia as a way of getting back at UH. But the coincidence stinks.
Yoshida hopes to maintain a good relationship with Virginia, which still plans to come here in 2002. The Cavaliers are also trying to help the Rainbows find a replacement for next year.
Yoshida said that North Carolina State, another Atlantic Coast Conference member, is very interested in coming here and that preliminary talks are underway. Who knows? Maybe a football-basketball package can be worked out to bring in more Wolfpack fans.
The changing landscape in college football has definitely made scheduling harder for Yoshida.
YOSHIDA lined up Montana for next year, and Northwestern State -- not to be confused with Northwestern -- said it was interested in a game. But Yoshida doesn't want to schedule two Division I-AA teams in one season. Not that the Rainbows have any power ratings to worry about.
"People are trying for more home-and-home games," Yoshida said.
That makes UH a scheduling liability. Teams want to come here, but they don't necessarily care about having the Rainbows come to their place.
And with the breakup of the WAC and the accompanying hard feelings, UH president Kenneth Mortimer isn't about to yield on his stand of not scheduling the breakaway schools, with the exception of Air Force in 2000. That game was contracted before the split.
"The president has some feelings about scheduling them in football and the major sports," Yoshida said. "Maybe in time we might play them again. But not right away."
With the scheduling difficulties UH faces, especially in football, that time might come sooner than people think.
"It's never a never-never land," Yoshida said.