WAC to be ready if Miami joins ACC

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

Commissioner Karl Benson said he will call a special session of the Western Athletic Conference Board of Directors shortly to consider the conference's membership options.

Benson said he expects to hold the meeting of the conference's 10 presidents, who make up the board, "within the next week."

The board is scheduled to hold its annual meeting June 1-2 at Half Moon Bay, Calif., but in light of a possible shakeup in the NCAA Division I-A landscape, Benson said he believes a conference call before then "is necessary."

The University of Miami is mulling an unofficial bid to leave the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference, a move that, if undertaken, could involve taking two more teams with it. Whether the ACC will tender an official offer and the Hurricanes will accept it is expected to be determined within the next month.

Any move by Miami, Benson and other conference commissioners say, could have repercussions for several other Division I-A conferences.

"Without knowing what the overall impact will be at this time, we want to assess the potential changes and will have some planning sessions in that regard," Benson said. "If there is some trickle down, we want to have some idea what our options might be."

In the past, the conference has looked at a 12-team model that would have allowed the WAC to hold a championship game in football but turned down proposals from several membership candidates. Benson said, "It is too early to speculate on what our options might entail."

Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert represents the University of Hawai'i on the WAC Board of Directors.