WAC reprimands UH, imposes $5,000 fine
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Western Athletic Conference yesterday publicly reprimanded and fined University of Hawai'i $5,000 after the school failed to academically certify its football team for the ConAgra Foods Hawai'i Bowl.
According to the WAC, the Warriors were the only conference bowl team that did not certify the eligibility of their roster as required by a new conference rule.
UH and WAC officials have refused comment on a rumor that the Warriors used at least one player subsequently determined to be ineligible in the Christmas Day loss to Tulane.
UH has maintained certification of its roster was difficult because of the brief turnaround between the end of the semester Dec. 20 and the Dec. 25 game.
"We are not happy with any sanction of any kind — even the simple reprimand and relatively small fine imposed in this case," UH-Manoa chancellor Peter Englert said. "But I think the conference will realize that the six-credit rule needs to be re-examined so that member schools are not placed in this impossible situation in the future."
WAC officials, who had suggested six weeks before the game that UH apply for a hardship waiver, said the school never followed through.
The new rule, which was adopted during the summer to prevent players from "blowing off" their final semester of classes, requires schools to certify that their players have passed a minimum of six credit hours in the previous term to be eligible for postseason play. At UH, that essentially means a football player must receive a D-minus or better in two classes during the fall semester.
When UH failed to certify its players for the game, Fresno State and Boise State, two schools that did comply, brought the issue to attention.
"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 after the Bulldogs held seven players out of their Silicon Valley Bowl game.
The WAC Council, composed of athletic directors, faculty representatives and senior women's administrators of the conference members, heard the case last month and recommended a reprimand to the Board of Directors. People involved in the vote said the balloting "wasn't close."
The conference Board of Directors, composed of the presidents of the 10 member institutions, reaffirmed the reprimand Monday and determined the amount of the financial penalty.
"At the very least," Englert said, "there should be some provision for member schools to seek a waiver from the rule if it is impossible to comply for a reason as simple as the way the academic calendar is laid out with the athletic schedule. The WAC didn't even offer that option in December."
WAC commissioner Karl Benson said, "We continued to work with UH through the end of November and into December and encouraged them to put forth an official request for relief but none was ever received."
The Advertiser reported Nov. 12 that Benson had advised UH to seek a waiver. "We will certainly do what we can to work with UH," Benson said. At the time, athletic director Herman Frazier also said, UH was "putting a proposal together" to ask the conference for relief.
In a statement released by the school yesterday, Frazier said: "Naturally, we are deeply disappointed that the conference did not see the merits of our case. As a member institution we are obligated to comply with conference rules, but clearly it was impossible for us to do so for purely technical reasons."
