UH in discussions with Mountain West

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

The University of Hawai'i has had informal discussions about its interest in joining the Mountain West Conference, although no invitation has been extended nor is there a guarantee that an offer is forthcoming.

FRAZIER

Frazier declined to reveal the specific conversations with those involved with the Mountain West, which was formed from the eight teams that seceded from the Western Athletic Conference in July 1999.

"I would tell you, sitting here unequivocally, there are schools and conferences interested in us because of the type of program that we have and what we bring to the table," Frazier said. "And they believe we can be an anchor school for whatever conference we're in."

The departures would leave the WAC with seven members, including Hawai'i — one short of the minimum number of football teams necessary to maintain Division I-A status.

Emerging from a teleconference with the other six WAC athletic directors yesterday, Frazier said UH has these options:

• Remain in the WAC, which is looking to add at least two teams from a pool that includes Sunbelt members Arkansas State, Idaho, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Middle Tennessee State, New Mexico State, North Texas and Utah State.

• Negotiate individually with another conference, such as the Mountain West.

• Form a conference that includes schools from the WAC and the Mountain West.

"I think those are our three options," Frazier said, adding, "I would say everyone has irons in the fires. I would not be doing my institution a service if I didn't have irons in the fire."

If UH were to change conferences, Frazier said, he would be opposed to paying an exorbitant entry fee or travel subsidies to visiting teams.

"If someone says to us, 'it's going to cost you $4 million to get into a conference,' that would be too much," Frazier said.

As for travel subsidies, which UH had paid out to WAC visiting teams through 1996, "that would definitely have to be negotiated," Frazier said. "Wherever we go, we want to be a full-fledged member, and we are not going to be step-children."

Frazier said he has heard suggested proposals for a combined conference involving Western teams from the WAC and Mountain West.

"But it's not been anything formal, and it's not been (proposed by) other athletic directors," Frazier said. "It's been people outside of sports."

He said the proposals were from people he described as "more than fans. I would say they're people who have followed the conference's actions over the years. They're pretty knowledgeable with what they're proposing, no question in my mind."

But for all of the speculation, Frazier said, "as we sit here today, we're in the WAC with six other institutions. We don't have any better offers on the table than where we are."

Frazier said UH supports the WAC, even though it did not agree to commissioner Karl Benson's suggestion of imposing a $5 million penalty for departing teams. The suggestion was made as a show of conference unity.

"Judging on what's going on in collegiate athletics, why would Hawai'i agree to anything that causes you to pay $5 million?" Frazier said. "Again, we're all adults. We can either say we're going to do something or we're not going to do something. ... Again, I'm not going to put this institution at risk over $5 million on anything. ... To us, you have to wait and see what happens (because) $5 million is a lot of money we don't have."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8051.