The Western
Athletic Conference
By Matt Shetler
The WAC was
established in 1962, making it the sixth oldest conference
currently competing in Division I athletics. The conference
consists of nine members, competing in nineteen Division I
sports. The headquarters of the WAC are located in Greenwood
Village, Colorado and the commissioner of the WAC is Karl
Benson, a post he has held since 1999.
The WAC was formed from universities which were members of the
Border, Skyline and Pacific Coast Conferences. Brigham Young
University President Edwin Kimball was credited with starting
the WAC. Charter members of the conference were: the University
of Arizona, Arizona State University, Brigham Young University,
the University of New Mexico, the University of Utah and the
University of Wyoming. The WAC experienced some success right
away, but expansion would soon happen. In fact, the WAC has had
more turnover than any other conference, as none of its charter
members are still with the conference.
UTEP (recently re-named Texas Western College) and Colorado St.
joined in 1967, upping the WAC membership to eight. In 1978, the
two most successful WAC programs, Arizona and Arizona St.,
bolted for the Pac-8 (now known as the Pac-10). San Diego St.
and Hawaii replaced the two Arizona schools. Air Force was added
in 1980, and the WAC operated with nine members for the next
fifteen years.
Fresno St. joined in 1992, giving the WAC ten members, but the
rapid turnover was just about to begin. The break-up of the
scandal-plagued Southwest Conference in 1996 affected the WAC in
a major way. Rice, TCU and SMU were added from the Southwest
Conference, along with San Jose St. and UNLV from the Big West
Conference and Tulsa from the Missouri Valley Conference. This
expansion gave the WAC sixteen universities in two divisions.
The WAC divided these teams into four quadrants with four teams
in each.
This system only lasted less than three years as eight schools
left the WAC to form the Mountain West Conference in 1999. The
new arrangement upset many of the pre-1990 schools (Air Force,
BYU, Colorado St., Utah and Wyoming), who felt expansion had
compromised the athletic and academic excellence of the
conference. Additional concerns arose around finances, since the
new league stretched from Hawaii through Oklahoma. Travel costs
became a major concern. The five schools, along with UNLV and
New Mexico and San Diego St. would split to form the Mountain
West Conference in 1999, leaving the WAC with only UTEP and
Hawaii from its golden age.
WAC membership has continue in a state of flux after 1999.
Nevada joined the WAC in 2000, followed by TCU in 2001 (TCU
would leave for the Mountain West in 2005). Boise St. and
Louisiana Tech would be added in 2002.
After Conference USA was raided by the Big East in 2005, four
WAC schools left to join C-USA: Rice, SMU, Tulsa and UTEP. The
WAC responded by adding Idaho, Utah St. and New Mexico St.,
after the Big West Conference announced it would drop football.
As of 2008, the WAC has nine members: Boise St., Fresno St.,
Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Nevada, New Mexico St., San Jose
St. and Utah St.
Despite all of the turnover in the conference, the WAC has
established some very good conference rivalries on the gridiron.
Among these are Boise St.- Fresno St.(played for the milk can),
Boise St.- Hawaii, and Hawaii - Fresno St. ( “The Battle of the
Screwdriver”).
The WAC has ties to three different bowl games. The Hawaii Bowl,
the Humanitarian Bowl and the New Mexico Bowl The WAC has even
sent two teams to BCS games, Boise St. played in the Fiesta Bowl
in 2006 and Hawaii played in the Sugar Bowl in 2007. The Fiesta
Bowl between Boise St. and Oklahoma produced some of the
greatest college football in recent memory, when the underdog
Broncos upset the Sooners’ 43-42 and was voted the Game of the
Year.
Several WAC teams have won national championships while members
of the conference. Most notably Arizona (baseball 1976), Arizona
St. (baseball 1965, 1967, 1969 and 1977), Fresno St. (baseball
2008) and BYU (football 1984).
