Posted on: Sunday, May 2, 2004
WAC missed its chance
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
It should be the Western Athletic Conference that is toasting its new look right about now, not Conference USA.
It should be C-USA that is desperately scouring the landscape for somebody, anybody, to fill the pukas left by defecting members today, not the WAC.
But it isn't, and the WAC really has only itself to blame now that Texas-El Paso has announced it is high-tailing it to C-USA, the fourth member to jump over that fence in six months.
When this whole game of musical conferences began a year ago with the Atlantic Coast Conference raiding the Big East, we knew somebody was going to end up the big loser when the music stopped. And now we know who — the WAC.
The sad thing is that, in the battle between C-USA and the WAC to see who could strengthen themselves at the other's expense, C-USA won with a page out of the WAC's battle plan.
It didn't have to be this way, and indeed, it probably shouldn't have.
The WAC had before it almost a year ago the blueprint that C-USA ended up following. That's when WAC commissioner Karl Benson went around the conference, school by school, attempting to solicit solidarity pledges from members to stay together for five years.
If they would do that, Benson had said, the WAC could not only protect itself from raids, but have a chance to enhance itself by attracting Houston and, possibly, Tulane. The beauty of it was that the WAC would have two six-team divisions, thereby reducing travel and strengthening regional ties.
Seven of the 10 WAC teams eventually grasped the concept and agreed to sign on to the so-called "Benson Plan" — reportedly all but Hawai'i, Nevada and Southern Methodist.
But without unanimity and the strength in numbers it would have brought, the WAC eventually came apart, piece by piece. First Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa bagged it, and now, UTEP.
To hear UTEP athletic director Bob Stull tell it Friday, the Miners made their switch largely for reasons of stability and familiarity, everything the "Benson Plan" would have provided and without the $2 million price tag the Miners will be paying to get it.
They wanted a place in a league that figured to still be together in five years, and they wanted to retain a tie with fellow Texas institutions.
"Finding a spot where we were connected geographically and politically, I think that became more and more of a deciding factor" in the Miners' decision to leave the WAC, Stull said.
They could have had both in the WAC, if only the membership had stuck together and looked at the big picture. Instead, because they were so concerned with mapping their own exits and not taking into account the pitfalls, they blew it.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
