Posted on: Friday, January 30, 2004
Mountain West berth to TCU
| • | FERD LEWIS: Buried by its own avalanche |
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
If the University of Hawai'i is sitting by the phone waiting for the Mountain West Conference to call, it can forget about an invitation in 2004.
The membership offer that the MWC has made to Texas Christian University is the only one that will be tendered this year, a spokesman said.
The MWC has scheduled a press conference today from the Fort Worth, Texas campus of TCU to announce the Horned Frogs as their ninth member. The press conference is scheduled to follow the TCU Board of Trustees' acceptance of the offer.
The Horned Frogs, who are bolting from Conference USA, will join the MWC in 2005-06 and be the only member east of the Mountain Time Zone.
"That is it (for invitations) for the rest of this year at least," said Javan Hedlund, MWC director of communications. "The one to TCU is the only one for 2005-06 that I know of."
After months of speculation, the MWC yesterday confirmed that it made the offer to TCU. In November commissioner Craig Thompson had said the conference could expand by one or two schools beyond its original eight members. There had been speculation it might add from one to four members.
At the time, Thompson identified UH as a school under discussion. Fellow Western Athletic Conference members Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada and Texas-El Paso have campaigned for invitations.
UH officials said they were last contacted by the MWC "six or eight weeks ago," according to a spokeswoman.
Asked if he were concerned by the MWC apparently bypassing UH, school president Evan Dobelle this week said, "not really."
The MWC is composed of eight schools (Air Force, Brigham Young, Colorado State, Nevada-Las Vegas, New Mexico, San Diego State, Utah and Wyoming) that broke away from the 16-school WAC following the 1998 school year.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
