Thursday, October 29, 1998

Poll: Staying
in WAC makes
sense for UH

But many question the decision
to stop scheduling the eight WAC defectors

By Al Chase
Star-Bulletin

The University of Hawaii school should stay in the Western Athletic Conference according to half of those polled by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and NBC Hawaii News 8.

But the poll, conducted Oct. 16-19 among 425 registered voters statewide, found 43 percent were unsure and 7 percent said Hawaii should not remain in the WAC. The telephone poll was taken by Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research Inc. of Columbia, Md., and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Twenty-five percent believe UH president Kenneth Mortimer made the right call in deciding not to continue to schedule the eight teams that will leave the WAC next June.

Thirty-two percent said Mortimer's decision was not a good idea and 43 percent were not sure.

"I don't think people understand a lot about the reasons for not scheduling teams leaving the Western Athletic Conference," Mortimer said. "Most of the people want to schedule us home-and-home and we want to play eight home games.

"As an example, UNLV made all this big fuss about a home-and-home series for 10 years. Why would we want to go to Las Vegas and give up a home game to do it?

"There are financial considerations in all this. I've listened to conservations, but no one has told me where the money is going to come from if we lose a home game. We'll continue to think about this issue."

Mortimer said UH has no choice and is not interested in becoming an independent.

"Very few say we should leave, but there aren't any other alternatives," he said.

As far as 44 percent saying UH officials have handled the breakup well, Mortimer said, "I appreciate that."

In addition to UH, schools remaining in the WAC are Fresno State, Rice, San Jose State, Southern Methodist, Texas Christian, Tulsa and Texas-El Paso.