Posted on: Sunday, October 19, 2003

UH considers options as WAC faces shakeup

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

RUSTON, La. — University of Hawai'i athletic director Herman Frazier said he currently sees only two options for the school in the wake of an impending defection by Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa from the Western Athletic Conference:

Remain in the WAC or pursue membership in the Mountain West Conference. "That's it unless a third one opens up out there somewhere soon," Frazier said.

Frazier said there is no possibility UH would go independent. "It just wouldn't work for us," Frazier said.

He said the WAC has scheduled a conference call of presidents on Monday and one for athletic directors on Tuesday, after which he will meet with UH-Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert and UH President Evan Dobelle to plot a course for the school.

"I want to be aggressive and see what's in our best interests," Frazier said. "If other people come to talk to us, I would say that we have to listen to them."

Dobelle has been on the record as favoring MWC membership for UH, which has been a WAC member for 25 years. The MWC, which is comprised of eight schools that broke away from the WAC, is studying the possibility of expansion, but officials of that conference say it hasn't been determined how many they might add or if they will expand.

After talking with WAC Commissioner Karl Benson and other athletic directors, Frazier said he believes the departure of Rice, SMU and Tulsa for Conference USA, "is 99 percent a done deal."

Although he said he doesn't believe there are schools currently on the market with interest in the WAC that would bring the same value as the three would-be defectors, "where the WAC is concerned, I don't think it is going to hurt us financially. I don't know that Tulsa, Rice or SMU were all that (good of) draws for us anyway," Frazier said.

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