The September 11th attack
Spartans not team players
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
Twice in the past three months the Western Athletic Conference has come to the University of Hawai'i hat in hand for help.
Twice the membership has asked the Warriors to, in effect, take one for the league.
And each time the Warriors have sighed but nevertheless obliged their brethren.
They have done so even at the considerable inconvenience of themselves and their fans, twice moving dates to facilitate an ESPN television agreement and the kind of visibility the conference desperately needed.
One of the occasions, the shift of the Fresno State game to Oct. 26, even involved moving a 6:05 p.m. Saturday game smack dab into the middle of Friday drive time with a 3:05 p.m. start.
But now that the Warriors are a team in need of a favor and San Jose State is in a position to grant one, the Spartans have balked and squawked. Heck no, we won't go, say the Spartans about moving the date of their scheduled Sept. 22 game with Nevada to accommodate the Warriors.
Never mind that the Spartans would still retain a home game at the original time, just shifting it to Nov. 10t, a date of convenience since both Nevada and San Jose, two schools a bus ride apart, have open dates that weekend.
This would allow UH to honor its commitment to play at Nevada Sept. 22, finally playing a conference game whose cancellation was forced because of travel problems brought about by the terrorist attack on the United States
Nevada has agreed to the move if UH could secure the necessary flights, which it has. The WAC office asked San Jose State to make the move in the interest of the conference.
Yet, the Spartans have dug in their heels and crossed their arms. So adamant is their refusal that the issue may end up before the conference directors for a vote.
Never mind that San Jose State was one of the shrillest voices of complaint in the conference call three months ago, demanding that UH switch the Fresno State game for the good of the conference. Or that it railed that UH had a duty to the WAC.
The Spartans are curious ones to be holdouts, since they are generally viewed around the WAC as the conference's weakest link, a program teetering on the brink of insolvency. Their fan following more of a cult interest.
The Spartans' home attendance has been below 12,000 the past two seasons, less than the minimum requirement for Division I-A membership. They have few home games because they routinely sell themselves out to the highest bidder.
Being a member of a viable conference sometimes means a responsibility to the whole. It means occasionally looking past self interest and doing what best serves the mission of the whole.
After five years in the WAC, the Spartans apparently still don't understand what being a member is all about.
