UNLV, seven other schools split from WAC

Steve Carp

Tuesday, May 26, 1998 | 10:49 a.m.

It was college athletics' version of Hiroshima.

In a matter of seconds Tuesday, the nation's largest collegiate athletic conference had been severed in half, as UNLV and seven other schools dropped an atomic bomb on the Western Athletic Conference by seceding from the 16-team mega-conference.

Joining the Rebels in fleeing the WAC are Air Force, Brigham Young, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, Utah and Wyoming. The yet-to-be-named league, which has yet to gain NCAA Division I status, expects to begin operation July 1, 1999.

No timetable has been set for coming up with a name for the new league, hiring a commissioner or handling the myriad tasks that come with starting a new conference.

"We feel very comfortable with the company we're with," UNLV President Dr. Carol Harter said after the official announcement was made in the Si Redd Room at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"We've come to this point because of the inability to establish permanent divisions and we didn't have the sense we were developing the rivalries that are so important in college athletics."

Harter also pointed out that financially, the WAC hadn't delivered the windfall that UNLV expected when it left the Big West Conference two years ago. The failure of the WAC to gain acceptance in college football's bowl alliance was a major setback in the league's attempt to boost revenue among its 16 member institutions.

Couple that with the disarray surrounding the vote last month by the WAC Council to go to permanent eight-team divisions, and UNLV quickly became a member of the secession movement.

The Front Range schools -- Colorado State, Air Force and Wyoming -- were extremely disappointed with the decision to break up the trio. It was at that point the talk of splitting picked up steam.

"From where I sit, it was a critical issue for UNLV," athletic director Charles Cavagnaro said of the rift within the WAC over the permanent divisions. "The 16-team concept was a noble experiment. But we could see two years ago that it wasn't going to work."

WAC commissioner Karl Benson had no idea the split was coming.

"I'm surprised. I'm shocked," Benson said within minutes of hearing the rumors of the breakup. "There have been some unhappy schools since the alignment issue and I obviously knew there were some problems out there. But I certainly didn't expect this.

"If they were looking to send a message, this obviously is a strong message. We may have underestimated the degree of discontent that was really out there."

The WAC, which has been in existence since 1962, now faces a serious dilemma. Its flagship schools in the two main revenue sports -- BYU and Air Force in football; Utah, New Mexico and UNLV in basketball -- are leaving.

Geographically, things are also in turmoil as there's no link from the Pacific Coast (where Hawaii, Fresno State and San Jose State remain) to the Texas border and on to Tulsa.

"When you look at geography, this new group of eight obviously took into account geography and looked at the eight with the closest geographical connections and links," Benson said.

Cavagnaro admitted as much. But while the schools that are leaving the WAC still have plenty of work to do, Cavagnaro said Tuesday's step was the important one.

"It's too bad we have to go through this at this period of time," he said. "I've been through changing conferences twice (at Memphis) and it's no fun. There is no easy way to put a conference together.

"But this was the right thing to do and this was the right day to do it. All the other things will fall together in the routine order of business. This could be the last major athletic conference."