Utah State, New Mexico State to join WAC

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Utah State and New Mexico State have accepted invitations to join the Western Athletic Conference, a high-ranking University of Hawai'i official confirmed tonight.

Peter Englert, chancellor of the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus, said the WAC's Board of Directors extended the offers today. The board is composed of the presidents and chancellors of the WAC schools.

The invitations come five days after the announcement that Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa will secede from the WAC and join Conference USA in July 2005. Those departures would have left the WAC with seven schools, including UH.

Englert, who represented UH, confirmed that the leaders of the seven remaining WAC schools met in a teleconference this afternoon. During the meeting, the board voted to extend invitations to Utah State and New Mexico State.

Both schools will announce their acceptances in separate news conferences scheduled for tomorrow, Englert said.

New Mexico State and Utah State will join the WAC on July 1, 2005. They will increase the membership to nine, providing a balanced eight-game, home-and-home football schedule.

New Mexico State is located near WAC member Texas-El Paso; Utah State will become Boise State's travel partner in basketball.

New Mexico State and Utah State currently are members of the 11-school Sun Belt Conference. Eight Sun Belt schools compete in football, and all of them were included on the board's wish list of expansion candidates announced Monday.

The board met Monday and the WAC's athletic directors met in a teleconference yesterday to discuss the WAC's options.