WAC compliance hearing to rule on UH infraction
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Western Athletic Conference Council today will determine if the University of Hawai'i should be penalized for failing to certify its football roster for the ConAgra Foods Hawai'i Bowl last December.
Today's compliance hearing could result in potential action ranging from acquittal to probation or financial penalties, said Jeff Hurd, the WAC's senior associate commissioner.
"I don't know what will come out of it," said Pete Simis, Fresno State's faculty representative, one of 30 members on the council. Herman Frazier, UH athletic director, declined comment.
UH officials have acknowledged that the school did not certify whether its football players each earned the minimum of six credit hours in the fall semester to be eligible to play in the Dec. 25 bowl against Tulane.
They claimed there was not enough time between the Dec. 20 end of fall semester and the game in which to certify the entire roster.
UH, which had said it might seek a waiver of the rule, never applied for one, school and conference officials confirmed.
Unconfirmed reports circulating around the WAC say UH had more than one player ineligible for the game but a conference spokesman yesterday refused comment.
Both Fresno State, which withheld seven players from the Silicon Valley Bowl, and Boise State, which certified all of its players for the Humanitarian Bowl, complied with the then-six-month-old rule.
"We followed the letter of the rule, and we were under the impression everyone else was following it, too," Fresno State athletic director Scott Johnson told the Fresno Bee.
Fresno State coach Pat Hill told The Advertiser last month: "If they have a rule, everybody has to abide by it. (The rule) was applicable to three teams in the conference. We followed it. I don't know why everybody else didn't."
"We want to hear all sides of the story," said James Castaneda, the faculty representative for Rice University, another WAC member.
The WAC Council is made up of athletic directors, faculty representatives and senior women's administrators from each of the conference's 10 members. Each school gets one vote in the proceedings and any action may be appealed to the WAC Board of Directors, which is made up of the presidents of member institutions.
