Eight Schools Leave
Western Athletic Conference

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah
Half of the 16 universities making up the Western Athletic Conference announced Tuesday that they'll pull out of the conference after the 1998-99 academic year.

Their departure will leave the nation's largest Division I league without many of its strongest contenders. The eight departing institutions are Brigham Young University; Colorado State University; San Diego State Universities; the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Universities of Nevada at Las Vegas, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The institutions announced that they intend to form their own athletic conference and join the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The defecting schools also pledged to limit the new conference to eight or nine members for at least five years.

According to a statement released by the University of Utah on behalf of the eight defectors, the departure is the result of "insurmountable" challenges "despite extensive, ongoing meetings and discussions" with WAC management that have left conference members "without answers to difficult problems."

Among reasons the defecting universities cited for their departure was a lack of affinity among the 16 schools, a severe decline in revenues, the inability to attract larger revenues for televised games and possible erosion of fan support. The schools also complained about large travel expenses to play games throughout the conference, which stretches from Texas to Hawaii.

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Karl Benson, WAC's commissioner, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that he was "shocked" by the announcement but suspects the schools' decision is based largely on money.

"My goal was to create a financial source that was big enough to satisfy 16 mouths," he told the Chronicle. "Obviously, we didn't do that."

Benson said the WAC will continue and that the remaining teams can invite new schools to join them. Universities remaining in the conference are California State University at Fresno; Rice, San Jose State, Southern Methodist and Texas Christian Universities; and the Universities of Hawaii at Manoa, Texas, El Paso and Tulsa.

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This page last updated 09/08/98.

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