UH will remain in WAC out of necessity

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Legend has it Gov. John A. Burns once told a group of western governors he wouldn't adjourn one of their more tedious meetings until he got a pledge from them.

They weren't leaving, the governor is said to have promised, until those who had schools in the Western Athletic Conference agreed to back the University of Hawai'i's bid for membership.

The late three-term governor, a tireless supporter of the entire school, touched athletics in many ways, notably with longterm vision for the Rainbows and hands-on drive to find the best-fit home for them. "We want to belong to a conference that would rate about with our prospects. The WAC does just that," Burns said in the 1960s.

Now, 37 years after Burns first took up the cause of UH in the WAC and 22 years after the Rainbows were finally admitted, president Evan Dobelle is calling for the deepest reassessment of those ties. The president plans to meet soon with head coaches of all 19 sports to understand where the athletic program wants to go and determine if the WAC is still the vehicle.

It is a welcome move, one long overdue for a school that has seen both itself and the WAC change a lot since tying the knot in 1979. Of the seven schools who voted UH in, only Texas-El Paso remains. All the others shunned UH in bolting for the Mountain West Conference two years ago to be replaced by Nevada, Boise State and Louisiana Tech, events that probably caused the late governor to spin in his grave.

But chances are next year — and even three years from now — UH will be right where it is today: in the WAC. And not because it is the ideal home for UH. It isn't. But because it is the best one available at the moment.

Ideally, of course, the Pac-10 would come calling. But there's about as much chance of that happening soon as UH finding $12 million — the difference between its $16.4 million athletic budget and the Pac-10 average — under its pillow tonight.

As for the other options, the Mountain West Conference has declared a moratorium on expansion for at least four years and any independent route poses more questions than it answers.

UH is in the WAC today for the same reason the other nine members are: because they all lack better immediate options elsewhere.

But they shouldn't be resigned to that forever. It would honor both Burns' vision and their future if the Rainbows used this opportunity to take a page from the late governor's book and come up with a bold plan for where they want to go and how to get there.