WAC will seek legal action against Fresno State and Nevada
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) has sued Fresno State and Nevada, according to WAC commissioner Karl Benson, who announced in a teleconference Tuesday that the league had taken the first step in enforcing the bylaw which would require the two schools to remain in the conference through the 2011-2012 season.
“The damages the WAC could incur if Fresno State and Nevada left early are very, very significant,” Benson said. “That’s what has driven this: to protect the assets of the WAC as a corporate entity.”
Fresno State and Nevada accepted invitations to join the Mountain West Conference (MWC) on July 18, and have each made their intention known to leave the WAC after the 2010-2011 season. However, both schools missed the July 1 deadline to notify the WAC of their intentions, legally binding them to the conference for the 2011-2012 year.
Benson’s announcement comes at a critical time in the WAC, which intends to operate as an eight-member conference for the 2011 football season and then add programs after the two schools leave for the MWC. Not having Fresno State or Nevada as conference members in 2011 could threaten the WAC’s ability to operate as a football conference, and lead to further defections of the conference’s remaining teams to other leagues.
“The WAC is simply seeking to protect its interests and insure that all member institutions are protected from a potential and threatened violation of the bylaws,” Benson said. “Such inappropriate action would make it impossible for member institutions to schedule athletic events and thereby would adversely affect the WAC, the WAC member institutions and the student-athletes.”
“We’ve declared pretty consistently that the football schedule for 2011 would be drastically challenging for the remaining members if they lost two football games less than a year away,” Benson added.
The WAC is also requiring the two schools to pay a $5 million exit fee, which is currently a separate issue which will not be handled in court.
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