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Western Athletic Conference

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Western Athletic Conference
File:Logo WAC.gif
AssociationNCAA
CommissionerKarl Benson (since 1994)
Sports fielded
  • 19
    • men's: 8
    • women's: 11
DivisionDivision I
SubdivisionFBS
RegionCalifornia, Nevada, Idaho, Utah,
New Mexico, Hawaii, and Louisiana
Official websitehttp://www.wacsports.com/
Locations
Location of teams in {{{title}}}

The Western Athletic Conference (commonly referred to as the WAC, pronounced "wack") was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A). The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States, with member institutions located in California, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

History

Formation

The WAC formed out of a series of talks between Brigham Young University President Edwin Kimball and other university administrators from 1958 to 1961 to form a new athletic conference that would better fit the needs and situations of certain universities which were at the time members of the Border, Skyline and Pacific Coast Conferences. Potential member universities who were represented at the meetings included Brigham Young, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Arizona State, and Wyoming. While the three Washington and Oregon schools elected to stay in a revamped Pac-8 Conference that replaced the scandal-plagued PCC, the remaining six schools formed the WAC, forcing the disbandment of the Border and Skyline conferences. New Mexico State and Utah State applied for charter membership and were turned down; they would eventually become WAC members 43 years later.

Charter members

Success and first expansion

The conference proved to be an almost perfect fit for the six schools from both a competitive and financial standpoint. Arizona and Arizona State, in particular, experienced success in baseball with Arizona garnering the 1963 College World Series runner-up trophy and ASU winning the CWS in 1965, 1967, and 1969. UTEP, recently renamed from Texas Western College, and Colorado State joined in 1967 to bring membership up to eight.

With massive growth in the state of Arizona, the balance of WAC play in the 1970s became increasingly skewed in favor of the Arizona schools, who won or tied for all but two WAC football titles from 1969 onward. In the summer of 1978, the two schools left the WAC for the Pac-8, which became the Pac-10, and were replaced in the WAC by San Diego State and, one year later, Hawaiʻi. The WAC further expanded by adding Air Force in the summer of 1980. A college football national championship won by BYU in 1984 added to the WAC's reputation as the best of the so-called mid-major conferences. The nine-team lineup of the WAC defined the conference for nearly 15 years.

Second wave of expansion and turbulence

Fresno State expanded its athletic program in the early 1990s and was granted membership in 1992 as the nationwide trend against major college programs independent of conferences accelerated. The WAC merged with the High Country Athletic Conference, a parallel organization to the WAC for women's athletics, in 1990 to unify both men's and women's athletics under one administrative structure.

In 1996, the demise of the scandal-plagued Southwest Conference set off a chain reaction that affected conferences nationwide and the WAC was no exception. Rice, TCU, and SMU from the disbanded SWC were admitted into the WAC, along with San José State and UNLV from the Big West Conference as well as Tulsa from the Missouri Valley Conference to bring WAC membership to sixteen universities in two divisions.

To help in organizing schedules and travel for the farflung league, the members were divided into four quadrants of four teams each, as follows:

Quadrant 1 Quadrant 2 Quadrant 3 Quadrant 4
Hawaiʻi UNLV BYU Tulsa
Fresno State Air Force Utah TCU
San Diego State Colorado State New Mexico SMU
San José State Wyoming UTEP Rice

Quadrant one was always part of the Pacific Division, and quadrant four was always part of the Mountain Division. Quadrant two was part of the Pacific Division for 1996 and 1997 before switching to the Mountain Division in 1998, while the reverse was true for quadrant three. The scheduled fourth year of the alignment was abandoned after eight schools left to form the Mountain West Conference.

The division champions in football met from 1996 to 1998 in a championship game at Sam Boyd Stadium (also known as the Silver Bowl) in Henderson, Nevada. ABC televised all three games.

Increasingly, this arrangement was not satisfactory to most of the older, pre-1990 members. Five members in particular (Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah and Wyoming) felt that WAC expansion had compromised the athletic and academic excellence of the membership[1]. Additional concerns centered around finances, as the new league stretched from Hawaiʻi to Oklahoma and travel costs became a concern. In 1999, those five schools, along with old line WAC schools New Mexico and San Diego State, as well as newcomer UNLV, would split off and form the Mountain West Conference, depriving the WAC of most of its competitive strength and almost all of its history (in addition to its 4 remaining charter members). Only UTEP and Hawaiʻi would remain from the WAC's "golden age," and UTEP ultimately ended up leaving the WAC as well.

Today's WAC

Since 1999, WAC membership has been in a state of flux. Nevada of the Big West joined in its plan to upgrade its athletic program in 2000. TCU left for Conference USA in 2001 (then rejoined eight former WAC opponents as the ninth member of the Mountain West in 2005), while Boise State of the Big West and independent Louisiana Tech joined the WAC in 2001.

Another large change of membership came in 2005, with the departure of four members to Conference USA: Rice, SMU, Tulsa, and UTEP. Joining the conference were three more universities (all land-grant schools) from the Big West — Idaho, Utah State, and New Mexico State (ex-Big West). When the Big West announced that it would drop football after the 2000 season, there were four members that wanted to continue their football programs. Boise State was invited to join the WAC and promptly departed, but UI, NMSU, and USU were left without a football conference in 2001. NMSU joined the Sun Belt Conference as a full-time member, but UI and USU remained in the Big West. Idaho joined the distant Sun Belt as a "football only" member in 2001 while Utah State operated as a football independent for two seasons. USU found scheduling extremely difficult, and it joined Idaho as a "football only" member of the Sun Belt in 2003. [2]

Current members (and year joined)

Institution Nickname Location Founded Affiliation Enrollment Joined Endowment
Boise State University Broncos Boise, Idaho 1932 Public 19,500 2001 $61 million
Fresno State University Bulldogs Fresno, California 1911 Public (California State University system) 21,000 1992 $86.6 million
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Warriors Honolulu, Hawaii 1907 Public (University of Hawaiʻi System) 20,549 1979 $3 billion (UH System)
University of Idaho Vandals Moscow, Idaho 1889 Public 13,000 2005 $143.5 million
Louisiana Tech University Bulldogs/Lady Techsters Ruston, Louisiana 1894 Public (University of Louisiana System) 11,710 2001 $39.1 million
University of Nevada, Reno Wolf Pack Reno, Nevada 1874 Public (Nevada System of Higher Education) 15,588 2000 $240 million
New Mexico State University Aggies Las Cruces, New Mexico 1888 Public 16,415 2005 $74.3 million
San José State University Spartans San José, California 1857 Public (California State University system) 28,932 1996 $44.2 million
Utah State University Aggies Logan, Utah 1888 Public (Utah System of Higher Education) 23,128 2005 $110.3 million

Associate members

Sports

The WAC crowns team and individual champions in 19 sports – 8 men’s and 11 women’s.

Men's sports

  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Cross country
  • Football
  • Golf
  • Tennis
  • Indoor track and field
  • Outdoor track and field

Women's sports

  • Basketball
  • Cross country
  • Golf
  • Gymnastics
  • Soccer
  • Softball
  • Swimming and diving
  • Tennis
  • Indoor track and field
  • Outdoor track and field
  • Volleyball

Former members

1978

1999

2001

  • TCU (1996-2001)

2005

Of the former members:

  • Two (Arizona and Arizona State) are currently members of the Pac-10.
  • Four (Rice, SMU, Tulsa, UTEP) are in Conference USA.
  • The remaining nine make up the current membership of the Mountain West Conference (TCU was in Conference USA from July 2001 through June 2005 before joining the Mountain West).

Conference facilities

School Football stadium Capacity Basketball arena Capacity Baseball stadium Capacity
Full Members
Boise State Bronco Stadium 32,000 Taco Bell Arena 12,380 N/A
Fresno State Bulldog Stadium 41,031 Save Mart Center 15,544 Beiden Field 5,422
Hawaiʻi Aloha Stadium 50,000 Stan Sheriff Center 10,300 Les Murakami Stadium 4,312
Idaho Kibbie Dome 16,000 Cowan Spectrum 7,000 N/A
Louisiana Tech Joe Aillet Stadium 30,600 Thomas Assembly Center 8,000 J.C. Love Field 2,000
Nevada Mackay Stadium 29,993 Lawlor Events Center 11,784 William Peccole Park 3,000
New Mexico State Aggie Memorial Stadium 30,343 Pan American Center 13,071 Presley Askew Field 750
San José State Spartan Stadium 30,578 The Event Center 5,000 San Jose Municipal Stadium 5,200
Utah State Romney Stadium 30,257 Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 10,270 LaRee and LeGrand Johnson Field 500
Associate Members
Sacramento State Hornet Field 1,200

Note:

  • Idaho uses the same structure for both its home football and basketball games, although it uses a different name for the venue's basketball configuration. Also, Idaho has occasionally used Martin Stadium at Washington State University, only 8 miles (13 km) west, for a home football game. In 1999, while a member of the Big West Conference, Idaho played all of their home games at Martin Stadium and did not play a single game in the state of Idaho. This was due to the requirements by the Big West, and due to remodeling of the Kibbie Dome per the NCAA for Idaho to be a Division I-A, now FBS, school.

Rivalries

Commissioners

Awards

Commissioner's Cup: The WAC awards its Commissioner's Cup to the school that performs the best in each of the conference's 19 men's and women's championships.

Stan Bates Award: The award is named in honor of former WAC Commissioner Stan Bates and honors the WAC's top male and female scholar-athletes, recognizing the recipients’ athletic and academic accomplishments. In addition, the awards carry a $2,000 postgraduate scholarship.

Joe Kearney Award: Named in honor of former WAC commissioner Dr. Joseph Kearney, the awards are given annually to the top male and female WAC athlete. The WAC Athletics Directors select the male award winner, while the WAC Senior Woman Administrators choose the female honoree.

National championships

The following teams have won NCAA national championships while being a member of the WAC:

The WAC has also produced one AP national champion in football:

Football Bowl Games

The WAC regularly sends teams to three different bowl games. The Hawaiʻi Bowl, the Humanitarian Bowl, and the New Mexico Bowl. The conference even has the opportunity to send a team to a BCS game, and did so in 2006 with Boise State and 2007 with Hawaiʻi.

Bowl Championship Series

The WAC champion will receive an automatic berth in one of the five BCS bowl games if:

  • ranked in the top 12 of the BCS Standings. (Both Boise State in 2006 and Hawaiʻi in 2007 qualified under this criterion.)
  • Or if ranked in the top 16 of the BCS Standings and its ranking is higher than that of a champion of a conference that has an annual automatic berth in one of the BCS bowls.

Hawaiʻi Bowl

Main article: Hawaii Bowl

The bowl will select a WAC team and will match it against a C-USA opponent.

Humanitarian Bowl

Main article: Humanitarian Bowl

The bowl will select a WAC team and will match it against an ACC opponent.

New Mexico Bowl

Main article: New Mexico Bowl

The bowl will select a WAC team and will match it against a Mountain West Conference opponent.

Conference championships

Football

Basketball

Baseball

Template:WAC football coaches

Template:WAC Football Venues

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