WAC targets remain a mystery
As usual, Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson remained tight-lipped Monday about his league’s effort to add new teams.
“Nothing to report,” he said. “The process continues. We’re continuing to review and evaluate.”
But two well-placed sources within the Big Sky Conference, home to at least three potential candidates, doubts they’ll be coming from that league.
“I think I have a pretty good pulse on things in our league,” said one source, “and at this point I really don’t see any movement.”
“If we lost anybody now, I’d be really surprised,” said the other. “If we do, well, I’d have to seriously question their judgment in light of the information we’ve provided them.”
(Said information pertains to the financial realities of joining the Football Bowl Subdivision, a pressing topic for another day considering the looming budget crisis in Texas.)
Montana, Montana State and Portland State have been mentioned by numerous sources as likely WAC targets as the league seeks to replenish its football-playing membership. One told the Express-News this weekend that Benson recently circulated an e-mail to member schools detailing the close ties between the two Montana schools.
But Montana has already turned down the WAC once, eschewing an invitation to join UTSA, Texas State and Denver last November at the 11th hour. According to one of the Big Sky sources, five other current or future league schools — Montana State, Portland State, Sacramento State, UC-Davis and Cal Poly — also rebuffed the WAC as it attempted to pick up the pieces following the loss of three, and eventually four, programs.
The same source also said that Benson, when asked point-blank by Big Sky commissioner Doug Fullerton last month at the NCAA Convention in San Antonio, told Fullerton he would not pursue any schools from that league.
(An editorial aside: That doesn’t necessarily mean Benson won’t, just that he said he won’t. In the brief time I’ve known Benson he’s struck me as a very honorable person. But he’s also under a lot of pressure to pull some pretty large rabbits out of a hat, so all bets might be off.)
Sun Belt members North Texas and Louisiana-Lafayette have also been repeatedly mentioned as potential targets, even though the former has spurned WAC advances on numerous occasions, most recently last November. Four rival athletic directors said chatter about any potential defections has been non-existent.
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