This post is dedicated to the once reputable Western Athletic Conference (WAC). As it stands, the WAC will no longer sponsor football due to the mass exodus of its remaining members, leaving New Mexico State and Idaho behind. The WAC is scraping the bottom of the barrel, hoping to not get splinters, for new members to cobble together some semblance of a league. The WAC during the BCS era has sent representatives to BCS bowls on three occasion, twice with Boise State and once with Hawaii. When it comes to conferences getting the muddiest end of the stick, nothing tops the WAC. It is as if Genghis Khan had laid waste to the WAC, leaving only a handful of survivors to recall the grim events that unfolded. Expansion has gutted the WAC and currently, it is not yet over by a long shot.
The WAC was first started in 1958 by BYU and other like-minded universities. By 1961, it had formed its league that included BYU, Arizona, Arizona State, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The league was a huge success. In 1967, UTEP and Colorado State joined, bringing its membership to eight. The balance of power was concentrated heavily in the Arizona school’s favor. In 1978, Arizona and ASU left and joined the PAC-8, which would become the PAC-10, but by 1980, the WAC recuperated its membership to nine members by adding San Diego State, Hawaii, and Air Force. In 1984, BYU won its first and only national title in football, under the leadership of legendary coach Lavell Edwards and quarterback Bobby Boscoe. The WAC had earned the title best of all mid-majors because of the success of the Arizona schools winning College World Series championships and BYU winning the national title in football.
In 1992, Fresno State was admitted to the WAC after an extensive expansion of athletics on their part. In 1996, the WAC became the first ever sixteen team football conference. The reason that they are called “maverick” because in the era of expansion that us college football fanatics are witnessing, it may be the genesis of superconferences. The WAC was the first to try this and there are rumors that there will be four superconferences and each of those leagues will have at least sixteen teams in each of those conferences. In that year, Rice, Texas Christian, and Southern Methodist joined the WAC from the recently deceased Southwest Conference; San Jose State and Nevada-Las Vegas had left the terminally ill Big West Conference; also, Tulsa had left the Missouri Valley. This gave the league sixteen members and they decided to organize the members into four pods, another idea that is being kicked around chatrooms in the college football blogosphere and news agencies alike. In quadrant 1, it was Hawaii, Fresno State, San Diego State, and San Jose State; in quadrant 2, it was UNLV, Air Force, Colorado State, and Wyoming; in quadrant 3, it was BYU, Utah, New Mexico, and UTEP; in quadrant 4, it was TCU, SMU, Rice, and Tulsa. This was supposed to create rivalries that were in close proximity to each other, but when you Hawaii and Texas separated by almost 4,000 miles, travel costs were horrendous. This league was doomed from the start. The league held a conference championship from 1996-1998.
In 1999, a rift wider than the Grand Canyon emerged that ended up splitting the league in half. In that year, BYU, Utah, San Diego State, Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, Wyoming, and UNLV broke away from the increasingly cumbersome WAC and formed the Mountain West Conference. The remaining eight continued on and in 2000, the WAC added Boise State, Nevada, Louisiana Tech, and Utah State. That same year, the Big West decided to pull the plug on football. In 2001, TCU left for Conference-USA. 1999 was a watershed year that would be ominous for more and worse things to come.
In 2005, the Big East decided to grab up South Florida, Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette, and De Paul from Conference-USA while St. Louis and Charlotte left for the Atlantic Ten and TCU would leave for the Mountain West. C-USA decided to grab up SMU, Rice, UTEP, and Tulsa from the WAC to replenish its membership. This move left the WAC hobbling a little bit and left LA Tech on an island with no neighboring members. That same year, to cushion these blows, the WAC added New Mexico State, Idaho, and San Jose State from the Sun Belt. The 2000s, even though it was rough one in terms of membership exoduses, was the most memorable decade. In the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, Boise State pulled off a stunner by beating Oklahoma 43-42 in overtime, with the key two-point conversion coming from a Statue of Liberty play initiated by quarterback Jared Zabransky and concluded by running back Ian Johnson. This would be the most significant win in the history of the WAC. In 2008, Hawaii earned a berth to the Sugar Bowl against Georgia. They would end up losing, but an excellent season nonetheless by the Warriors led by quarterback Colt Brennan. In 2010, Boise State once again earned a trip to a BCS bowl and once again, it would be the Fiesta Bowl. They would be pitted against fellow mid-major and MWC champion TCU. Boise State, led by all-time winningest quarterback Kellen Moore, capped another undefeated season by defeating the Horned Frogs 17-10.
Starting in 2010, it was all downhill from there. In 2010, seeing the possibility of the Big 12 ultimately unraveling at the seams, the Mountain West made a power play and added Boise State to their league in order to have strong enough line up of teams and maybe steal away the Big 12 possibly vacant seat at the table of the Big six conferences. Also in that year, the MWC recruited Fresno State, Nevada, and Hawaii; they all accepted invitations to the MWC. Down to five members, the WAC had to make a drastic move and recruit UT-San Antonio, UT-Arlington, Texas State from the Southland Conference and Denver from the WAC. The three Texas schools would have to make a move up from FCS level and UT-San Antonio Texas State sponsor football while Denver and UT-Arlington are non-football members. In 2011, C-USA experienced more defections with UCF, Memphis, SMU, Houston, East Carolina, and Tulane set to be in the Big East by 2014. C-USA, in a familiar trope, raided the WAC for more members and grabbed up UTSA and LA Tech. Down to five members once again and exhausting and no more viable replacement options, Texas State and UT-Arlington left for the Sun Belt while Utah State and San Jose State would leave for the MWC. Denver will find a new home in the Summit League. The orphans of the WAC, Idaho and New Mexico State, football-wise, are like men without countries. Idaho has had a little luck by placing their non-football sports in the Big Sky but currently, their football teams will have to stick it out as independents.
Starting in 2013, the WAC will no longer sponsor football. In order to keep itself alive, it swallowed its pride and added such schools like Chicago State, Grand Canyon, Cal-Bakersfield, Missouri-Kansas City, Texas-Pan American, Utah Valley, and Seattle just so it can be eligible to send a representative to the NCAA tournament. The WAC was the first conference to be put on the sacrificial altar of the college football gods. The WAC might be used as a model of not what to do if you are a football conference wanting to be a superconference. They were the first of their kind and will most likely not be the last. The college football landscape is fluid and ever-changing. More changes are to come and will another conference die on the vine? The WAC once enjoyed a respectable position as a formidable mid-major; a maverick that bucked the system by sometimes, fitting the role as giant killer, when it came to Boise State. Whose fault is it? Currently, the commissioner of the Sun Belt, Karl Benson, was the commissioner of the WAC when it fell apart. The WAC gleefully picked the remains of carcasses like the SWC and the Big West, only for its carrion to be left for the carnivores of college football. Should we feel sorry for the WAC? Maybe or maybe. Are they a victim or did they have it coming to them? Or both? Ultimately, will we see a new era of college football where there are four sixteen team superconferences? My question is, looking at the WAC, is it such a good idea?
Filed under: Super Conference Scenario
