Louisiana lightning hits WAC

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

Can we get a recount on that last round of Western Athletic Conference expansion, please?

Here it is barely four months since Louisiana Tech was voted into the WAC and look who sits alone atop the conference football standings with a cat-that-ate-the-mouse grin?

The ink is hardly dry on the new stationery and these guys are putting the finishing touches on the conference championship. Win their final two WAC games against conference tail-enders Texas-El Paso and Tulsa and they can ship the trophy to ... where are these guys from again?

Most of the conference isn't even sure what their nickname is and already the Bulldogs, at 5-1 in the WAC (5-3 overall), have just about wrapped up the title and a bowl bid to boot.

While everybody was focusing on the other Bulldogs (Fresno State's) at the front door, these Bulldogs sneaked in the side door and are making off with the silverware.

Clearly this isn't the way the conference powers-that-be had it planned when they expanded to 10 teams in July. Nor is it, history tells us, how things are done.

It is customary for the new kids on the block to pay their dues and take their lumps before jumping into the championship race. It is, along with the initiation fee, the price of admission.

Except that the WAC's two newest members, Boise State and Louisiana Tech, had other ideas in their inaugural seasons.

Fresno State shared a three-way piece of the pie in its 1992 debut, but nobody — not Air Force, Hawai'i, Nevada-Las Vegas, San Diego State — claimed clear title to the championship in their rookie year.

Yet, the way things have unfolded, it was going to be one of the conference's two newcomers, Boise State or Tech, that found itself in the driver's seat. Both were 4-1 until Saturday when they met in Ruston, La., and Tech prevailed in a 48-42 pinball match that showed while the two teams might be new to the conference, they at least grasp the shootout tradition.

And that was bad news for the 5-2 (6-2 overall) Warriors who, had Boise State prevailed, would have had a showdown for the conference lead Saturday night.

Instead, unless Tech takes a pratfall against 1-4 UTEP or 0-5 Tulsa, UH, which doesn't play Tech until 2003, meets Boise State for a piece of second place and long-shot, at best, bowl hopes.

Otherwise, unless there is a recount on this year's expansion, it might be time to start packing the championship trophy for shipment to Ruston, La.