Hawai'i to join Mountain West

[beaverdaleguy]

Hawaii reportedly headed to the MWC; adios WAC? | CollegeFootballTalk

...as a football only member. Now that conference stretches from Texas to Hawai'i. I'd hate to be in charge of the athletic travel budgets there...

 

[CAARHawk]

Surprised the MWC would do this. Hawaii is a killer on conference travel. They don't send anyone to away games and it costs an arm and a leg to get your team there.

Actually helps out the WAC with respect to financials. Wonder if we will see a WAC / Sun Belt merger?

 

[silvanthalas]

This is just getting absurd.

But maybe it would be for the best. For basketball, DU wouldn't have to go to Florida, moving from the Sun Belt to the WAC, and now they won't have to go Hawaii either.

 

[TecmoSuperHawk]

I don't quite get the luster of the Mountain West. With Utah and BYU gone and TCU possibly out the door, it's really not a great conference athletically. But the main thing is their TV deal SUCKS! It's among the lowest in D1. I think the WAC actually had a higher TV payout.

The mtn is broadcast in about 2 households and VS. and CBS College Sports are not in many more. No exposure from ESPN is a killer for these programs. Boise has been on TV a lot the last 3 years. Next year, few people will see them play.

 

[DuffMan]

That's why they are joining in football only. The costs to charter a plane to Hawaii once every other year isn't really all that much different than chartering a plane anywhere else.

 

[mrolympia]

well, the WAC did have a team from louisiana in the conference so it was worse in that regard. Seriously, how is louisiana part of the WESTERN athletic conference? Isn't the middle of the US somewhere in kansas or something?

 

[thetrza]

There is unfinished business and bad blood between the administrators and athletic directors in the old WAC (the 16 team one). Benson thought he had outmanoeuvred the old WAC defectors when BYU went independent. The raid for Nevada and Fresno State was payback, a kill shot in a big way. The scheduling loophole for teams that travel to Hawai'i makes the budget impact a little lighter.

Someday, we may even see a MWC game on ESPN.

 

[silvanthalas]

Well, in the end, the MWC knows they still need more if they ever hope to secure an automatic BCS bid. While Hawaii isn't as good as they were a few years ago, they're still one of the better, more competitive non-BCS teams.