Commentary: Big West didn’t plan on this mess

Thursday, Feb. 29, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

WHO COULD HAVE predicted this year's Big West basketball race would be so jumbled, so hotly contested?

And so mediocre.

Certainly not the conference office. If it had, it would have invited one and all to next week's league soiree in Reno. Bring your sorry .500 record to the Biggest Little City in the World and maybe you can slip into the NCAA's Big Dance, be a No. 13 seed and get your head handed to you by Utah, Wake Forest or Virginia Tech.

But that would take a little foresight, a commodity which has been severely lacking in the Big West the past few years. Instead of letting everyone in, the league decided it would save a few bucks by inviting only six teams. That would ensure that Cinderella didn't get a glass slipper inside the NCAA Tournament's door. Heaven forbid Cal State Fullerton should pull off the upset of Long Beach State and represent the league in the NCAAs. What would it mean, Fullerton losing in the first round by 30 instead of Long Beach losing by 20?

The conference took shortsightedness to a new level this week by declaring that New Mexico State, which dinged itself with probation after improprieties were found in Neil McCarthy's program, would have a bearing on the regular-season outcome.

Now that's interesting. The Aggies, who are 7-10 and will spend the month of March watching everyone else play ball, could upset the rotten apple cart if they beat Nevada-Reno Saturday. It could cost UNLV its bid to advance to the conference tourney, and it was understandable why coach Bill Bayno and school administrators were none too pleased Tuesday when word leaked out the Aggies were suddenly part of the tiebreaking process.

Of course, if UNLV doesn't beat Utah State Saturday and/or UC Santa Barbara downs Long Beach, none of this matters. But if the Rebels, Gauchos, Aggies and San Jose State all finish 8-10, UNLV gets what Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell called "the short end of the stick."

The league says it has bylaws that it must follow. But those bylaws don't address teams that are on probation and are ineligible for postseason play. New Mexico State is playing the schedule essentially to keep continuity in the league. Its results should not be a factor among the teams which have a legitimate right to go.

The people at UNLV are crying conspiracy, though I don't buy that one. San Jose State also is leaving the Big West for the Western Athletic Conference next year and no one's crying about the Spartans getting screwed. But if anything, San Jose State benefits from New Mexico State's inclusion into the tiebreaking mix. If the four teams are tied at 8-10, the Spartans would be the ones going to Reno next week.

No, this is more about a conference which continuously fails to plan ahead or look beyond the bottom line. How could someone not figure that maybe, just maybe, New Mexico State could be a factor in the race and perhaps the matter should be addressed before the final week of the season?

That's inexcusable. Only slightly less inexcusable is the notion that six teams deserve to go to the postseason tourney. That call was strictly a financial one and the Big West knew if it let all the men's teams in, it would have to do the same with the women, and we all know how well those first-round women's games draw.

Come to think of it, those first-round men's games don't exactly send scalpers' prices soaring through the roof.

Money always is a central issue in college athletics. And fairness winds up taking a back seat to cash. The Big West isn't alone in this. But because this is the league UNLV still is affiliated with, its ills will have to suffice for our purposes.

Take heart UNLV fans. None of this will be a problem next year. The Rebels will be in the WAC and Boise State and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo will have to deal with the Big West's world-renowned decision-making processes.

STEVE CARP is a Las Vegas SUN sports writer.