Changes coming for Western Athletic Conference

Steve Carp

Tuesday, March 3, 1998 | 10:06 a.m.

Look for changes in the Western Athletic Conference alignment a year from now. But how the WAC will look remains to be seen.

The conference's 16 athletic directors met Monday and will meet again today to determine which way to go. Currently, the league is divided into two divisions with four quadrants. And for at least one more year, those quads will remain intact.

Which means UNLV's basketball schedule next year will include home-and-home games with Tulsa, Rice, Southern Methodist and Texas Christian along with quadrant partners Wyoming, Colorado State and Air Force.

The A.D.'s also agreed Monday to eliminate altogether the dreaded crossover games that had teams playing an opponent from the other division home-and-home with the games not counting in the league standings.

Last May, the league gave the schools the option of playing or not playing the crossover contests. Many decided to keep the games on the schedule because it was too late to replace them.

"We had 2 1/2 hours of healthy discussion," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said of Monday's meeting at the Thomas & Mack Center. "I'm not sure which direction we're headed, but everyone seems to agree that a change was needed.

"But regardless of what is agreed on, it will not be done without unanimity."

The WAC is looking at the following options:

* Maintain the status quo beyond 1998-99 and continue to rotate the four quadrants.

* Two permanent eight-team divisions.

* One seven-team division and one nine-team division, which would allow for natural rivalries to be mantained.

* One 16-team league.

Benson said the biggest challenge is to provide a schedule which will make everyone happy. Right now, not many are happy with the current setup, so option one is not likely. The third option, which would have New Mexico and Texas-El Paso in a nine-team division, isn't likely to hold up, either.

That leaves the two eight-team division setup or the single 16-team entity.

With one 16-team league, everyone gets to play each other in basketball once and you would alternate home and away games each year. On the flip side, scheduling is more difficult.

But the most likely scenario is two eight-team divisions. There are several proposals to that effect, one of which has UNLV with Utah, BYU, New Mexico, Hawaii, Fresno State, San Diego State and San Jose State.

But New Mexico wants to be aligned with UTEP and some of the Texas schools rather than California. Colorado State, which recruits heavily in California for football and basketball, doesn't like the idea of being segregated from the Golden State.

Part of the permanent division plan would also mean a 16- or an 18-game league schedule, which would mean the return of the crossover games. A school like Air Force, which perennially struggles in WAC play, probably would prefer to maintain the current 14-game format so it can get easier nonconference games.

"Let's face it," Benson said, "a 16-team league has scheduling problems no other league has. Coming up with change that will address the peculiarities of a 16-team league has been, and will continue to be a challenge."

Hoop du jour

* RPI WOES: Heading into today's first round of the conference tournament, the WAC has just three teams with a Ratings Percentage Index of 25 or better -- New Mexico (15), TCU (17) and Utah (24). That's not a good sign for a conference trying to get a fourth team into the NCAA Tournament. Hawaii is sitting at No. 42 and Wyoming is at 45. Those two teams have the best chance, but they will need to win and move up before the week is out. UNLV is sitting at No. 75.

* MISSING IN ACTION: Just about the enitre WAC is represented here this week in either the men's or the women's tournament. Only two schools -- Air Force and San Jose State -- failed to send a team to Las Vegas. The top six teams in each division advanced to the WAC tournament. ... It was the second straight year Air Force was not represented in either tournament and it was the second consecutive year host UNLV failed to qualify in the women's tourney. San Jose State's women played in last year's tournament.