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Utah May Leave the WAC
Utah May Leave the WAC
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May 26, 1998
SALT LAKE CITY-- Utah is joining seven other member schools of the Western Athletic Conference to announce that before September 1, 1998, they will file their intentions to leave the conference. The withdrawal will be effective on June 30, 1999.
The eight schools will form a new athletic conference composed of present members of the WAC and seek to have it recognized immediately and admitted to membership by the NCAA. A name for the new conference has not yet been determined, nor have any formal organizational steps been taken. The group intends to limit the conference to eight or nine members for at least five years.
The heads of the eight schools, the Air Force Academy, Brigham Young, Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State, Utah and Wyoming, considered several options. They made their decision after concluding that the present 16-team conference has been unable to achieve its intended goals, and that the challenges faced by the conference are insurmountable. Despite extensive, ongoing meetings and discussions, the WAC Management Council has not been able to find answers to difficult problems that are acceptable to all of its members.
Principal problems cited by the eight are a lack of any natural affinity among the 16 members teams, a breakdown of traditional rivalries, the huge geographical spread and its attendant travel expenses, a feared erosion of fan support, the inability of the present conference to achieve greater national recognition and TV revenues, and, finally, a serious decline in per-member revenues and a major increase in expenses that affects all schools and threatens the viability of even the strongest members ? athletic programs.
The leaders of the eight schools acknowledged that the decision to depart the WAC was reached reluctantly and only after a long and earnest effort to find answers within the framework of the present 16-member conference. They also expressed their commitment to fulfilling schedules and meeting other obligations to remaining members of the Western Athletic Conference.