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Athletic Business Conference & EXPO thorotread.com | 2009 PSRC Western Regional Conference psrc.net |
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC, IPA: [ˈwæk]) 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. It is generally considered a "mid-major" conference; while it is not a member of the Bowl Championship Series selection system, it frequently produces teams that compete at a championship level.
[edit] History[edit] FormationThe WAC formed out of a series of talks between Brigham Young University Athletic Director Eddie 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. [edit] Charter members
[edit] Success and first expansionThe 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, Hawaii. The WAC further expanded by adding the U.S. Air Force Academy in the summer of 1980. A college football national championship won by Brigham Young in 1984 added to the WAC's reputation as the best of the so-called mid-major conferences. This nine-team line-up of the WAC defined the conference for nearly 15 years. [edit] Second wave of expansion and turbulenceFresno 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 WAC expanded again, adding six schools to its ranks for a total of sixteen. Rice, TCU, and SMU joined the league from the Southwest Conference, which had disbanded. Big West Conference members San José State and UNLV were also admitted, as well as Tulsa from the Missouri Valley Conference. With the expansion, the WAC was divided into two divisions. (Only one of these schools (San Jose State) is still in the WAC; the rest have either left for Conference USA or the Mountain West Conference.) 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 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". [edit] Today's WACSince 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. The two former SWC schools that were still in the conference (Rice, SMU) joined Tulsa and longtime member UTEP in leaving for Conference USA. 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] [edit] Membership timeline
[edit] Current members (and year joined) [edit] Associate members
[edit] SportsThe WAC crowns team and individual champions in 19 sports – 8 men’s and 11 women’s. Men's sports
Women's sports
[edit] Former members[edit] 1978
[edit] 1999
[edit] 2001
[edit] 2005Of the former members:
[edit] Conference facilities
Note:
[edit] Rivalries
[edit] Commissioners
[edit] AwardsCommissioner'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. [edit] National championshipsThe 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:
[edit] Football bowl gamesThe WAC regularly sends teams to three different bowl games: the Hawaiʻi Bowl, the Humanitarian Bowl, and the New Mexico Bowl. The WAC will also send a team to the Poinsettia Bowl if the Pac-10 conference cannot provide a team. In 2010 and 2013 the WAC will send a team to the Emerald 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:
Hawaiʻi Bowl Main article: Hawaii Bowl The bowl will select a WAC team and will match it against a Conference USA opponent. Hawaiʻi automatically qualifies for this bowl if it is bowl eligible and doesn't qualify for the BCS. Humanitarian Bowl Main article: Humanitarian Bowl The bowl will select a WAC team (usually the conference champion unless that team either qualifies for the BCS or accepts another bowl bid) and will match it against a Mountain West Conference 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. Poinsettia Bowl Main article: Poinsettia Bowl The bowl will select a WAC team, provided that the Pac-10 conference cannot supply an eligible team. The opponent will be a team from the Mountain West Conference. Emerald Bowl Main article: Emerald Bowl The bowl will select a WAC team in 2010 and 2013 to play the Pac-10's 6th place team provided they are eligible. [edit] Conference championships[edit] Football[edit] Basketball[edit] Baseball[edit] TennisThe Humanitarian Bowl is extended to the WAC team that finishes second in the conference, third if there is a team selected to the BCS. [edit] References
[edit] External links
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