Posted on: Friday, October 3, 2003

UH might be taking its last trip to Tulsa

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

TULSA, Okla — When the University of Hawai'i football team arrives here for tomorrow's game, it behooves the Warriors to make the most of what is looking more and more like a vanishing opportunity.

Not due to any particular fondness for this town in the midst of Tornado Alley, but because they just might be the last of the Warriors to play a Western Athletic Conference football game here.

Indeed, there is an escalating degree of uncertainty about the face of WAC membership in 2005, when the fallout from what is happening in the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big East reaches the nation's most geographically dispersed conference.

As early as Thanksgiving and probably before New Year's, the Big East will answer the ACC raid that has cost it Miami and Virginia Tech, likely by adding schools such as Louisville, Cincinnati and DePaul from Conference USA.

CBS Sportsline.com reported last week that Tulsa and Central Florida have "conditionally accepted bids" to join Conference USA if that happens.

Although a TU spokesman denies the report, the expectation around the WAC is that if Conference USA does offer Tulsa membership and Texas Christian stays on to remain a pillar in the Central Time Zone, the Golden Hurricane will leave the WAC in a heartbeat.

Not that Tulsa is alone in such speculation. As a Rice University official presumptively told a Hawai'i acquaintance after last week's game at Aloha Stadium, "in case we don't make it back over here again, take care."

Several WAC Central Time Zone members, Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa, are being eyed by CUSA as possible replacements even as the WAC is also casting lines for CUSA members Tulane and Houston.

For the Warriors, however, any loss of Tulsa from the fold would be bad news. And, not just for what it would mean for the viability of the conference, either.

In basketball, Tulsa has become a burgeoning rival, producing an annual home sellout for the Rainbow Warriors and some memorable games home and away. What's more, there is a fondness for Tulsa as the place where UH has some of its best memories after winning two conference tournaments and back-to-back NCAA berths for the first time in school history.

In football, Tulsa is prized as one of the few places where UH has felt at home on the road, no small feat when you're traveling 3,836 miles and hurtling time zones.

UH has won four of the last five meetings with the Golden Hurricane by an average of three touchdowns, two of them here.

UH is a 10-point favorite to leave here with another victory. The disappointment would be if it turns out to be the last one it takes home.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.