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Monday, February 26, 2001
WAC’s Benson: Although Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson is convinced the University of Hawaii is not actively pursuing an invitation from the rival Mountain West, he believes the island program is the leading contender to receive one as early as this year.
Rival league to
woo UH
He says the Warriors are first
in line for an invitation to the
Mountain West ConferenceBy Paul Arnett
Star-Bulletin
This spring, the football coaches from the eight-member league that split off from the WAC nearly three years ago will hold meetings to discuss possible expansion to a nine-team conference and make a recommendation to the athletic directors.
Fresno State and Hawaii have been considered the top two candidates since the former 16-team WAC split. But while members of the Fresno State athletic department quietly courted the Mountain West, Hawaii was slow to warm to the overtures.
"Until they decide to expand, you're going to hear a lot of talk about which teams they are interested in," Benson said late last week. "I'm not sure what's the timetable on possible expansion for them, but unless people here are lying to me, Hawaii is not actively pursuing an invitation."
An angry Kenneth Mortimer, who cast the deciding vote in 1996 to expand to 16 teams at a meeting of the WAC Council of Presidents, told UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida that the university was through with the eight schools that formed the Mountain West Conference.
Former UH head football coach Fred vonAppen questioned that reaction from the outset, saying, "It's strictly business. We're taking it personally. I don't think it's a good idea to remove BYU, Air Force, UNLV or San Diego State from your schedule. That's only going to hurt your attendance in the future."
It seems someone was listening.
With Mortimer due to leave the school in June, Hawaii renewed its relationship with Brigham Young, Nevada-Las Vegas and the Air Force Academy in football, a move Benson readily supports.
"We'd love to build a rivalry with the Mountain West," Benson said. "And the only way to do that is to schedule nonconference games with them. The one real difference between the WAC and the Mountain West two years into this split is TV.
"I think it's critical that the WAC can create a television package that will satisfy our membership. And I don't think it's so much the revenue, but the exposure. It's also the perception and the idea to claim our television deal is comparable to the Mountain West's with ESPN."
UH head coach June Jones has stopped short of saying he believes the Warriors should join the Mountain West. But he has said since coming to Hawaii in December of 1998 that the program should keep an open mind to all possibilities.
"I think you should always keep your options open," Jones said last fall. "Just in case something happens to the league you're in."
The ever-changing WAC loses marquee Texas Christian -- which has carried the conference in football the past three years --this June. The league adds Boise State and Louisiana Tech this summer, leaving the WAC more far-flung than it was before.
"Losing TCU hurts us because they were in the top 20 and gave us some credibility," Benson said. "We need someone to step up and fill that void for us. Hawaii is certainly a team that could fit that criteria."
The WAC already has two postseason sites locked down -- the Silicon Valley and Humanitarian bowls -- and is working with the Mobile Bowl to extend that relationship that matches the WAC with a team from Conference USA.
"We need a postseason bowl there for our teams in the Central time zone," Benson said. "That's why it's important those teams in Texas and Oklahoma do well enough to be considered. Obviously, TCU has filled that role for us the last two years."
Travel costs are only getting higher, which may force the league's athletic directors to review the travel subsidy issue. During expansion talks in 1996, Mortimer convinced the presidents it wasn't fair for Hawaii to help defray the travel costs of the other schools, despite Hawaii accepting that condition when it joined the WAC in 1979.
Benson downplayed that possibility, but conceded the Mountain West would likely require Hawaii to pay some form of travel subsidy. That was a key reason the Mountain West didn't invite Hawaii at the time of the split. Those schools wanted to cut costs to have a better shot of survival in the short run.
But now that the league has stabilized, it needs more postseason sites in football -- something Hawaii can offer through its ties with the Oahu and Aloha bowl games. The opportunity to play 12 football games in a single season, via the Hawaii exemption rule, is also a positive for the UH athletic department.
Former BYU head coach LaVell Edwards said while in town for last month's Hula Bowl that the Mountain West coaches wanted nine teams to help in conference scheduling. He thought UH was the natural choice for the Mountain West.
"You need to have eight conference games and three nonconference," Edwards said. "It's easy to set up home-and-away, and it's more equal for everybody. Having to schedule four nonconference games every year is difficult."
Edwards also said he favored Hawaii over Fresno State if it came down to those two schools because of the postseason games played here on Christmas. And while he doesn't have a vote, he wouldn't publicly support one school over the other if he didn't have some backing within the BYU athletic department.
"Hawaii has a lot to offer to any conference," Benson said. "It's a great travel destination and with the recent resurgence of football under Coach Jones, it is an even more attractive commodity."
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
