Hawaii among schools interested in joining MWC

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, June 5, 2003 | 10:20 a.m.

A day after the Mountain West Conference voted to lift its moratorium on expansion, commissioner Craig Thompson's phone was ringing off the hook.

No, not from potential candidates to join the MWC. Instead Thompson, who has decided to decline interview requests during a busy three-week schedule of meetings, was getting hammered by the media.

"So far he hasn't talked with any schools (about expansion)," Javan Hedlund, the MWC's director of communications, said. "But we've only been back for a day."

Actually, it appears all Thompson has to do to find out which schools might be interested in joining the Mountain West Conference is read the newspapers.

The University of Hawaii, which harbored bad feelings when left behind in the 1998 WAC breakup and threatened to not schedule Mountain West teams under former president Dr. Kenneth Mortimer, now seems to be openly lobbying to be included in the MWC.

Hawaii president Evan Dobelle recently told the Honolulu Advertiser "it makes more sense" for the Warriors to play in the MWC in terms of established rivalries. And when told of the MWC's lifting of its expansion moratorium on Tuesday, Dobelle said, "I think people are going to want to look at this.

"I don't look at things in a negative way. I'm not a Pollyanna, but the reality is that we're a big deal and we ought to position ourselves as a big deal and therefore (not) allow ourselves to be taken for granted, so folks know we're interested in having conversations."

Dobelle also told the Advertiser: "For all I know the WAC expands. The point is, there is going to be realignment and, it seems to me, anyway, we were caught unawares last time ... the people of Hawaii deserve better. That's not a knock on the WAC other than the fact that it is not the WAC that we joined. This is the WAC we were left with. That's a significant difference."

Meanwhile, Hawaii athletic director Herman Frazier spent much of his Tuesday night radio show in Honolulu talking about how he would present the Warriors as a viable candidate if courted by the MWC.

"We'd walk in with a WAC championship softball team, perennial volleyball powers for both men and women, successful basketball teams and a football team that has an average of three games on national TV every year," Frazier said. "I'm sure I forgot some good teams.

"If I'm the Mountain West I wouldn't wait for the dominoes to fall. I'd be out trying to get four teams anyway. If you have 12 teams you can have a championship football game and divisions. I see nothing but upside."

Meanwhile, another school often mentioned as a Mountain West expansion target, Fresno State, seems to have taken the soft-sell approach.

"We're all in a wait-and-see mode, trying to protect our own interests," Bulldog athletic director Scott Johnson told the Fresno Bee when asked if Fresno would push for inclusion in the MWC.

Added school president John Welty: "It's very muddy waters at this point. It's not clear to me where we would best be located looking over the next 10 years or so."

Not exactly glowing endorsements for the WAC.

Hedlund said he believes the conference will not make a rash decision on expansion even if the ACC were to makes its well-publicized move to a 12-team super conference later this month.

"I really don't think we're going to move that quickly on this," Hedlund said. "We're going to put together a three-person committee to explore expansion in about 90 days. I think they'll examine it, possibly at the (Board of Directors) meetings next June. Right now we haven't said we are even going to expand. The committee may look at everything and choose to say that eight teams is great."