WAC adds three schools
Last week, after months of uncertainty and speculation, the future of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) became a little clearer as commissioner Karl Benson and the WAC Board of Directors announced that the University of Denver, the University of Texas at San Antonio (USTA) and Texas State University had accepted invitations to join the conference.
The three universities will officially join the conference beginning July 1, 2012, with Texas State and UTSA joining the WAC in all sports and Denver coming aboard in all sports except football. The move to invite the three schools comes after a tumultuous summer of conference realignment which saw the WAC’s three flagship football schools – Boise St., Fresno St., and Nevada all leave the WAC for the Mountain West Conference (MWC). According to Benson, the move to bring in the new schools will strengthen the conference in the long term and provide a base for the viability of the league.
“The addition of these three schools clearly sends a message that the WAC and its member schools are prepared to move forward to build a ‘new’ WAC,” Benson said. “As the WAC prepares to begin its next 50 years as an athletic conference, I am confident that these three new members along with the six other WAC schools will continue to compete at the highest level of the NCAA.”
The WAC Board of Directors had voted earlier last week to extend invitations to the three schools, just a few weeks after a settlement WAC reached between the WAC and Fresno St. and Nevada. The settlement will keep the two schools playing in the conference through the 2011 year. USTA and Texas State currently compete in the Southland Conference (with the former playing football at the Football Championship Subdivision level), while Denver, which does not have a football team, will leave behind the Sun Belt conference. With the impending changes, the WAC will operate as an eight-team football conference with Nevada and Fresno St. in 2011, before operating as an eight-team conference with USTA and Texas State in 2012.
The move to bring the three schools into the conference fold was greeted with excitement at Utah State, as administrators and coaches alike said the three schools will provide plenty of benefits for the conference.
“The University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas State University and the University of Denver are three very strong institutions, both in their commitment to building athletic excellence and their commitment to academics,” said Utah State President Stan Albrecht. “We believe that all three will help us in our quest to make the WAC one of the outstanding athletic conferences in the country.”
Aggie head football coach Gary Andersen applauded the move, saying the addition of the three schools “solidifies the conference and puts the WAC in a great position for the future to remain a very powerful conference.”
Andersen also spoke to the importance of expanding the WAC’s footprint into Texas, especially in regards to recruiting. According to Andersen, the addition of two Texas schools should pay off in helping Utah State recruit high school players from the talent-rich state.
“From a standpoint of looking at ourselves, for Utah State, Texas is becoming a more important place for us to recruit,” Andersen said. “There is a great chance that we will take another coach and put another full-time recruiting coach in Texas because we have had so much success there in the past.”
From the perspective of the three new schools, the move to the WAC could not have come at a better time. USTA recently won the Southland Conference championship in women’s soccer, while the football team, which is still in development and does not currently compete in the FCS, will be coached by former national championship winning coach Larry Coker. Roadrunner Athletics Director Lynn Hickey described the the move to the WAC as a realization of the university’s master athletics plan.
“We have been working extremely hard for a very long time to reach our goal of joining an FBS – Football Bowl Subdivision – conference, and today’s invitation is a realization of a lot of hard work by so many different people,” Hickey said. “This is another great day for the university and our athletics department, and everyone is excited to take the next step up.”
The three schools will provide stability in the conference following the departures of Nevada and Fresno State after the 2011 season, but their arrival to the conference might not be the final change in the conference’s near future. In praising the additions, USU Athletic Director Scott Barnes hinted that the WAC and its board of directors may extend invitations to other schools in the future.
“We will celebrate the addition of these schools, while keeping an eye on other potential opportunities for the WAC moving forward,” he said.
– adam.nettina@aggiemail.usu.edu