honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, May 24, 2003

Dobelle says he likes Mountain West

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

UH president Evan Dobelle, left, shown with AD Herman Frazier, says there are "natural" rivalries for UH in the Mountain West Conference.

Advertiser library photo

University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle said "it doesn't make any sense for us to be in the Western Athletic Conference" and said he likes what membership in the Mountain West Conference could mean for the school.

Dobelle's comments to The Advertiser and a Honolulu radio station yesterday are some of the most pointed yet by school officials regarding UH's interest in conference affiliation.

They come at a time when most Division I-A schools, including WAC member UH, are looking at potential options if the Atlantic Coast Conference's pursuit of Miami, Boston College and Syracuse precipitates a major shakeup of conference alignments.

"We need to be ready to move, but we don't want to move and make a mistake and get into a conference that doesn't make any more sense to us than the WAC does," Dobelle said. "And, I say that with (respect) towards my colleagues in the WAC, but it doesn't make any sense for us to be in the WAC, in my opinion.

"But does it make more sense to be somewhere else? That's what Herman Frazier, our athletic director, has to determine."

An athletic department spokesman said Frazier refused comment and is referring calls to Dobelle's office.

Dobelle said, "I like the Mountain West singularly because of the matchups with San Diego State, with Nevada-Las Vegas, with Brigham Young, with Air Force. I just think there's some natural rivalries that that we don't have with a Boise (State) or a Louisiana Tech or a Texas-El Paso. I think it just makes more sense to me in that sense."

Dobelle said two of UH's largest alumni concentrations are in Southern California and Las Vegas.

WAC Commissioner Karl Benson said, "Over the last 20-plus years, I think Hawai'i has been good for the WAC and the WAC has been good for Hawai'i. I think what we offer is as promising if not more than other alternatives."

Said Dobelle: "We just have to prepare to move and move quickly and to be in the right place and the right time. Is it the Big 12 for us? Is it the Mountain West for us? The one thing that we do know is that we can't be independent. We played that every way we can and we just can't get the schedule right on that, so we can't be independent."

He added: "We're in the WAC, and it is not perfect. The next move has to be perfect, otherwise we're not gonna do it."

He said he has neither talked to the Mountain West nor been contacted by the league about expansion.