Posted on: Sunday, June 6, 2004
UH suddenly among WAC's well-to-do
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
When the dust settles from the reshuffling of Western Athletic Conference membership, the University of Hawai'i will suddenly find itself in the league's financial upper crust.
The amount it spends on athletics, $18.1 million in 2002-'03, the last year for which all schools' budgets were available, still figures to be the second highest among schools that will form the "new" WAC in 2005-'06.
Such will be part of the changes produced by the departure of comparatively well-heeled Rice ($19.9 million), Southern Methodist ($20.1 million), Texas-El Paso ($10.6 million) and Tulsa ($15.7 million) and the impending arrival of less lavishly funded Idaho ($9.6 million), New Mexico State ($9.3 million) and Utah State ($8.87 million).
After decades of mostly hovering near the middle of the WAC in expenditures and revenues, the Warriors/Rainbow Warriors/Rainbow Wahine/Rainbows figure to trail just Fresno State ($20 million plus) in the soon-to-be nine-school conference. UH and FSU, in fact, could have budgets nearly double some members. With the changes, the average WAC-member budget will drop from $15.4 million to $12.8 million. By comparison, the Mountain West Conference average is $20.4 million.
But will the comparatively buffed budget be enough to help elevate UH into a position of dominance in WAC arenas and stadiums?
"We would hope so," UH-Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert said Friday, after the WAC Board of Directors voted to add Idaho as the conference's ninth team for 2005-'06. "We would hope that we will be one of the leaders in the WAC athletically and also academically."
In the past two years of the Commissioner's Cup, an all-sports points competition that measures WAC schools' performance, UH has finished seventh (2002-'03) and eighth (2003-'04) in the 10-team conference. SMU (2002-'03) and Rice (2003-'04) won the Cups.
While some of that is attributable to UH not fielding teams in some WAC sports (men's track, for instance), and the WAC not offering some sports that UH thrives in (men's volleyball, for example), it does indicate room for improvement.
Given recent history, it might also be a mistake to dismiss the conference newcomers right away as threats in some of the marquee sports, where schools invest the lion's share of their money and resources.
Consider that Louisiana Tech, which joined the WAC in 2001 with an overall athletic budget ($9.1 million) that has been at the bottom of the conference, won the football title its first year. Boise State, which has had a mid-level budget ($13.6 million), has worn the football crown in its second and third seasons in the conference.
Still, the coming realignment and new financial realities of the WAC would seem to give UH its best chance at success in a quarter-century. Now, we see if the school can make the most of it.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
Yet, for all the disappointment over the departure of long-time rivals Air Force, Brigham Young, etc. in 1999, the exit of Texas Christian and subsequent talk of a weakened WAC, some of UH's fortunes haven't shown a significant spike of late.
