The wacky afterthought conference

Sporting News, The, Dec 9, 1996 by Carl C. Perkins

WAC supporters say they are tired of the league being underrated and overlooked. But critics say there are valid reasons for the league's poor image.

Back in 1994, when the Western Athletic Conference announced plans for its current 16-team format, the nation's college football community cast a suspicious eye toward a somewhat suspect idea.

To college football fans, the WAC basically was going to be BYU, Air Force and 14 relatively unknown quantities. Apparently, that opinion hasn't changed.

The WAC doesn't belong to the Bowl Alliance, nor will it be in the new Super Alliance. The league couldn't find a title sponsor for its championship game. It's having trouble placing its champion in a prime bowl game. And it has only two guaranteed bowl spots, meaning at least one WAC team with eight victories won't get a bowl bid for the second consecutive year. That leaves the WAC searching for acceptance--acceptance from its college football peers, television networks, recruits and the general public.

The WAC is widely regarded as a no-defense league, a league where you can see a lot of entertaining, high-scoring games that are sprinkled with a few NFL prospects. It's exciting football, yes, but when it comes time to decide the national title or hand out prime bowl berths, WAC teams aren't viewed as serious contenders. Or even equals.

The WAC thought it had turned the corner in 1994. Three teams finished in the top 25--Utah at No. 10. Colorado State at No. 16 and BYU at No. 18. But last season, no WAC team finished in the top 25, and seemingly everything the league worked for was lost. This' year, BYU is 12-1--but barely in the top 10. And Wyoming, 10-1, is barely in the top 25.

In deciding how to remedy this lack of respect. second-year commissioner Karl Benson. along with his school presidents and athletic directors, must make some hard decisions.

For example, if BYU is left out of a Bowl Alliance game, does the WAC sue the Alliance as reports have indicated could happen? (Benson has scheduled a teleconference for Friday with WAC presidents to discuss the league's options.) Does the WAC eventually have to whittle itself down to, say, the best 10 or 12 teams so members can become more aggressive in nonconference scheduling? Does the league need to put a bigger emphasis on defense so it can be taken more seriously? Or should it stay the course and hope for the best?

Rice coach Ken Hatfield gets passionate when he talks about the WAC. But if you really want to get him fired up, ask him about the Bowl Alliance and the possibility of a 13-1 BYU team (which the Cougars would be if, as expected, they beat Wyoming in Saturday's WAC championship game) getting snubbed in favor of, say, Penn State and Notre Dame, teams that have two losses each. That's not only a slap in the face for the WAC, it's also a loss of an $8 million payday and national credibility.

"I think it's a sham for all of them (Bowl Alliance members), to be honest with you," Hatfield says. "They're doing a disservice to their bowls, they're doing a disservice to football, and they're selling their soul out to the almighty dollar and saying, 'We don't care about you, the fan, or anybody else."'

The real rub for WAC backers is that the Big East champion, which almost certainly will be lower-ranked than the WAC champion, gains an automatic berth in an Alliance bowl.

"We knew this day would come sometime in the WAC, where one of the teams was going to be that highly qualified (and be snubbed), Hatfield says. "I just didn't know it would come the very first year we had this deal."

That's where a lawsuit would come in. The WAC could say the Alliance is a restriction of free trade because it doesn't give WAC teams equal access. The Alliance would point to the two at-large berths.

BYU coach LaVell Edwards has chosen not to concern himself with postseason possibilities. He seems genuine when he says he wouldn't be upset if his team slid past an Alliance Bowl and the Cotton Bowl down to the Holiday Bowl. "The Holiday is a great place," he says. And Edwards seems content to let powers higher than the Bowl Alliance handle this situation. "I'm just not going to speculate on that or get hung up on it," he says.

WAC coaches and officials aren't newcomers to college football. They know what makes the machine go. "The issues are decided by the TV sets and the dollars," Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick says.

And that's where the WAC is stuck. There are too many sparsely populated areas in the league--Wyoming, Nevada, Hawaii, Utah, New Mexico, west Texas.

And even in densely populated areas in the WAC, such as Dallas/Fort Worth (TCU and SMU), Houston (Rice), Denver (Colorado State and Air Force) and San Jose, Calif. the WAC loses out to the Big 12 and Pacific-10.

And that's part of the reason a league such as the Big East brings more to the table than the WAC. Along with the TV sets on the Eastern Seaboard, the Big East brings name recognition. A majority of the league's teams are located in or near major cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Miami and New York. The WAC can't compete with that. But Benson points out that although some of those schools have prime locations, they don't always carry those particular markets. "I think to some extent the numbers of come conferences have been exaggerated," he says. "Yes, they have the TV sets, but are they actually turning them on?"