After months of speculation, it was announced earlier this month that UH will leave the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) on July 1, 2012. After that, the football team will play in the Mountain West Conference (MWC), the other sports teams will play in the Big West.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Athletic_Conference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_West_Conference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_West_Conference
Boise State was already planning to leave the WAC for the Mountain West after this school year.
Fresno State and Nevada wanted to join the Mountain West at the same time as Boise State. But they missed the deadline, so they'll have to wait until 2012.
After it was announced that Fresno State and Nevada was going to leave the WAC, there was panic among WAC and UH officials.
The WAC went to find some new members from smaller colleges. They wanted Montana, which had some success in the 1-AA level. But Montana declined. So the WAC then added Texas State, Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) and Denver.
Some say that the WAC should fire its commissioner Jim Benson over the fact that teams always leave the WAC as soon as they had some success. But I'm already thinking that Benson actually enjoys being in charge of a conference that changes members all the time! I really believe that adding and losing teams makes his life exciting
But the UH fans sure aren't excited about the future WAC!
The better teams in the WAC are leaving. We're stuck with opponents that don't really attract crowds at Aloha Stadium. Hawaii fans tend to just go to games with big name opponents! They're not excited about watching UH playing smaller time WAC programs like San Jose State or New Mexico State. And they're sell as hell not going to fill the stadium to watch UH play Texas State or UT-San Antonio.
Some demanded that UH play football as an independent, meaning not being a member of a conference. That would mean UH would have to schedule all of its games. That's not as easy as it sounds.
Back in 2007, then-UH Athletic Director Herman Frazier got a lot of heat over his struggles in scheduling opponents for the football season.
But some things were out of his control!
UH was scheduled to play Michigan State that year. But Michigan State cancelled that game, and bribed UH with $250,000 into accepting that game's cancellation!
Frazier attempted to schedule the season's opening game at the other big university in the state of Michigan. That's right, Frazier attempted to schedule UH to play the University of Michigan at it's huge stadium at Anne Arbor. Michigan refused to play UH, and decided to play an even lesser-known school Appalachian State. Ironically, Appalachian State pulled a historic upset at that game!
Because of those scheduling difficulties, Frazier had to schedule small-time teams from Northern Colorado and Charleston Southern!
Frazier already had 8 games guaranteed, due to WAC affiliation. He just had to fill in 4-5 more games! Even that was difficult!
If Frazier had difficulty getting 4 more teams to play UH, what makes you think UH would have an easy time scheduling all 12 or 13 games by itself as an independent school?
Many college teams don't want to travel all the way to Hawaii! Too far, too expensive, too time-consuming!
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And that brings up another concern for Hawaii as well! To play their opponents on the road requires plane ride that goes 2,500+miles and takes at least 5 hours. And that's just to play a team in California!
But remember, the WAC as it is now, has teams in hard to get to places like Louisiana Tech (Ruston), New Mexico State (Las Cruces), Utah State (Logan) and Idaho (Moscow). Those schools are located in small towns far from major urban areas. There is NO direct flights from Hawaii to those places. So, it's either take 2 plane rides, or just take 1 plane to a major urban area (ie Las Vegas, Dallas, etc) and take a bus ride to your opponents' hometown.
And add possible flight delays, bad weather, etc.
And remember, these athletes also have to find time to keep up with their academic work in the midst of all this! That means finishing up research papers, reading books filled with words an average person doesn't use in conversations, and taking exams. And doing it all in the most craziest traveling situation in all of college sports.
That makes finding a good conference for UH sports more complicated than other colleges.
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The Big West conference as it is now, only has teams in California. That makes it easier on UH travel schedule, since they only need 1 flight to either Los Angeles, San Francisco or San Diego. No more long trips to isolated rural colleges located in landlocked states.
But the only problem with the Big West is that most of their schools don't have a football team. They all got basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball and soccer! But most don't have football!
The WAC will still have football teams, but Hawaii fans aren't interested in games against San Jose State, New Mexico State, or (future members) Texas State or UTSA.
So the compromise solution was for the football team to play in the Mountain West, and the other sports play in the Big West.
For football, the fans can continue to enjoy rivalries with Fresno State, Nevada and Boise State. Plus, they can take direct flights to road games against UNLV and San Diego State. The main drawback though, is long road to trips to games at rural colleges like Wyoming (Laramie) or Colorado State (Fort Collins).
For the other UH sports, they don't' have to worry about such road trips in the Big West. They can easily build or renew rivalries with Long Beach State, UC-Irvine, Pacific and Cal State Fullerton. Those schools may not have football teams, but they do have quality level volleyball, baseball and softball teams.
However, sports announcer Jeff Portnoy is upset that the Big West isn't a great basketball conference.
http://hoopstalk.honadvblogs.com/2010/12/10/uh-the-big-west-and-basketball/
He feels that UH basketball will take a step backward by being in that conference. But UH basketball hasn't done well in the last 3 years, so they haven't earned the privilege to complain. Just be lucky they won't be distracted by long road trips to isolated rural colleges.
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It's not just the distance that made it hard for UH! It's also the cost of travel. In this economic times, when schools are cutting budgets, college athletics aren't immune. Travel costs are a concern for the college teams traveling to Hawaii. So Hawaii had to agree to travel subsidies in order to join Mountain West and the Big West.
The words "travel subsidies" sent fear to the heart of many UH fans. You mean we gotta pay for our opponents plane ticket, hotel rooms, meals and other stuff? Actually no, we're just paying for their plane ride to and from the continent. Our opponents will continue to pay for hotel rooms and other accommodations, just like they do in their other road trips.
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Even though the UH Warriors lost to Tulsa in the Hawaii Bowl, they still had a great season! Hopefully, they'll continue to have success in all their sports as they move on to their new conferences
