Steve Carp: WAC facing some hard decisions

Thursday, April 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

HAVE YOU EVER thought you had settled a problem, only to find you hadn't and it actually got worse?

Since expanding to 16 teams, the Western Athletic Conference has been faced with coming up with an equitable league basketball schedule. If you followed this past season's proceedings, you're well aware of how unfair things turned out.

The plan had each team playing a 16-game schedule, a home-and-home against the seven other opponents in its division and a "crossover" home-and-home with a team from the other division.

Some teams, such as Wyoming, got paired with hapless Brigham Young. Others, like Colorado State, got stuck with powerful Utah.

Today, the WAC will try to come up with a better way. It has brought the coaches and the athletic directors together in the hopes of finding an alternative to an unwieldy situation.

UNLV coach Bill Bayno says good luck.

"In my opinion, there is no equitable solution," he said. "My concern is how do you get more teams into the NCAA Tournament?"

That is also UNLV athletic director Charles Cavagnaro's concern. While scheduling and the conference tournament format are factors to that end, the ultimate focus for the WAC needs to be obtaining higher national visibility and a larger measure of respect from the NCAA selection committee.

"This is supposed to be a basketball summit," said Cavagnaro. "But it won't mean a thing unless something happens from it."

You can expect a lot of arguing on a lot of issues today. But when things conclude around 6 p.m., the coaches and ADs need to leave the room in agreement and give whatever plan they come up with their full support.

Every variation of the schedule has merits and drawbacks. Playing 14 games gives the big-name schools a couple of more national opportunities while the struggling schools scramble to find opponents. Playing everyone once and flip-flopping the home dates gives a feeling that it's one league, but what happens when you're the visitor the year the opponent dramatically improves?

Everyone played crossover games last year, so why not this year? Isn't that fair? But when does the carousel stop so everyone can jump off? And if you're going to play crossover games that don't count, you're still hurting the overall record and Rating Percentage Index of the team on the short end.

Every plan has its strengths and weaknesses. But Cavagnaro and Bayno are right. The WAC has to do what best serves the ultimate goal -- getting as many teams into the NCAAs. Last month, just three of the WAC's 16 teams -- Utah, New Mexico and Tulsa -- were invited to the Big Dance. That, Bayno said, is not equitable. Bayno stumped hard for Hawaii and he felt TCU had a case.

But the WAC's RPI wasn't among the elite and its lack of respect around the country kept the bids to a minimum. And that's what today should be about. Changing those standards and perceptions. It's the only way things will get better.