Okay, it didn't happen exactly like that, but that's pretty close to how things went down.
Benson was not happy that the other big names in his, suddenly, even more irrelevant conference—remember Boise State has already defected to the MWC as well—decided to jump ship without so much as a heads-up.
So, what's next for the WAC? Well, according to Benson, his conference will look at both FCS and FBS schools—UC Davis, Cal Poly, and Sacramento State have all been targeted as "potential candidates". According to Benson, any one of those schools "have components that would allow them to make the move if they decided".
At the moment, though, everything is speculative as it was clear from his comments that he was not prepared for the exodus. He stated, "the other six WAC board members were under the belief that the action taken by the eight schools last Friday indicated a willingness to move this forward knowing the potential outcome would have included BYU and would have stabilized the WAC. On Friday, there was expressed solidarity and four days later there was a departure."
Obviously, Benson lives in la-la land. The demise of the WAC began when Boise State, their most prominent member, decided to move on to the greener pastures of the MWC. That was his first sign that the conference was about to undergo some major changes—he should have known from that point that anything was possible.
The fact that he could be blindsided means that he may have placed a little too much faith in the words of some of the conference's members. After all, in college football, money talks—the WAC isn't offering much in the way of the dollar for schools with bigger aspirations.
Furthermore, once Boise flexed their BCS muscle, it became clear that they had outgrown the friendly (schedule) confines of the WAC—although I'm not sure if they made the right choice by leaving—and they used their current national popularity to gain a spot in a more high-profile conference.
Both Nevada and Fresno State obviously feel that traveling on the coattails of Boise makes them more attractive—especially if you consider Fresno's willingness to play anybody, anytime, anywhere. Shoot, if the Bulldogs actually start winning a few of those big-time OOC games, they could usurp the Broncos at some point.
In case you didn't know, the Broncos athletic director and president have bought into the idea that they are too good to keep playing one-and-done games with teams—they want the respect of return engagements or else they won't entertain the idea of scheduling a BCS caliber team at all—excuse me, must laugh for a moment—I guess if you keep hearing the chant "they're all scared of you" long enough, you actually start to believe it.
Just a little sample of what the Boise State president, Bob Kustra had to say:
"We're doing a study of non-conference scheduling in Division I football. There is a fairly compelling case to be made that the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-10 over the years have controlled the scheduling. All the large conferences ... What Gene will tell you, there's an overwhelming number of home games for the big guys but no home-and-home. We've been able to get a home-and-home with Oregon and Oregon State. We want to propose to the NCAA a mandated home-and-home scheduling arrangement for I-A non-conference football games. Why should Boise State go to Georgia, but more than likely they're not going to return it?" (special shout to Get The Picture for link)Whatever, Boise.
Get a bigger stadium, sell out more than two home games a season (seating capacity is 32,000) and offer a pot that is worth it to a big school who is likely to spend more to come play you, than they will actually make, then complain about not getting any respect.
Anyway... back to Benson.
He's not going to let Nevada or Fresno get away with their defection without facing a stiff penalty. He expects both teams to play out the 2011 season, since they failed to honor the July 1st deadline for notifying the conference of their intent to leave, as well as pay the $5 million penalty for choosing to depart—a check to the conference is expected to be in the mail within 60 days.
Said Benson, "I wish at this time that I would have made it ( the penalty) $20 million."
Poor, Karl. He's, seemingly, fighting a losing battle and, unfortunately for him, there is little hope that anyone will actually give a darn what happens to the WAC at this point. However, on another note, the University of Hawaii's chances of reaching nine wins just increased substantially—for 2011.
Time to bring back the Haka dance, Warriors. You just reclaimed your spot as the most important program in the WAC:
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