WAC decision looms for Idaho

The University of Idaho, which struck out twice previously with attempts to join the Western Athletic Conference, makes another pitch to the conference Friday, a day that looms as momentous for the future of Vandal athletics.

The WAC Board of Directors, meeting in Half Moon Bay, Calif., could opt to:

•Stay at eight teams;

•Invite Idaho as the conference’s ninth all-sports member beginning in 2005;

•Invite Idaho for football only; or

•Decide on expansion later, though it appears WAC presidents are ready to act.

Athletic director Rob Spear will present Idaho’s case Friday at 9 a.m. Spear is pinch-hitting for incoming Idaho president Tim White, who was released from a Corvallis, Ore., hospital Tuesday after suffering a heart attack a week ago. UI interim president Gary Michael will also be on hand to answer questions.

“It’s really important,” Spear said. “It’s critical we go down there and make people comfortable about our institution and the direction we’re going. I think there’s still some convincing to do. We need to do our homework and make sure to answer any questions they have.

“We get mixed messages. (WAC) A.D.s don’t seem to be sold on Idaho. The presidents seem to be more sold than the A.D.s.”

The Vandals are guardedly optimistic. Several Sun Belt schools, including North Texas and Louisiana-Lafayette, decided to remain in the southern-based conference, leaving the WAC with few options – add Idaho or stand still.

Idaho has received support publicly from several WAC presidents, including Boise State’s Bob Kustra and San Jose State interim president Joe Crowley, who helped Idaho join the Big West in the mid-1990s when he was at Nevada.

First, though, the WAC must determine who will have voting rights. The WAC would have to alter its bylaws to exclude UTEP, which will join Conference USA in 2005, and allow incoming members New Mexico State and Utah State voting rights. NMSU and USU have been in the Sun Belt with Idaho, and they’re likely to favor Idaho’s inclusion to the WAC.

A 75-percent majority is required to add a school.

Idaho’s location generally works in its favor, though some WAC members remain leery of traveling to Moscow. The balance of WAC schools will be in the west in 2005.

The Vandals, currently in the Sun Belt in football and Big West in all other sports, want to join the WAC to curb the extensive travel it currently faces. UI wants to re-establish past conference ties with Boise State, Nevada, Utah State and New Mexico State, opponents that would probably boost Idaho’s attendance figures.

“It would finally put us in a conference that makes geographic sense,” Spear said. “Obviously we’d save on travel and it would provide a better atmosphere for our boosters and alumni because they’re interested in playing schools that make regional sense. And I think it would help overall in recruiting for our athletic department. I don’t envy our football coaches recruiting the northwest telling kids we’re playing in Arkansas and Louisiana – and I don’t mean that as a knock on the Sun Belt because they’ve been good to us.”

The competitiveness of Idaho’s programs can be viewed as a plus or minus. Vandal football has struggled mightily the last three seasons, but there is optimism with the arrival of new coach Nick Holt. Men’s basketball has moved into the upper echelon of the Big West the last two seasons. Women’s volleyball made the NCAA tournament last year and women’s basketball won more than 20 games. Golf and track and field teams have been successful in the Big West as well.

Spear, who was promoted to full-time A.D. in January, was a key figure in hiring Holt and he’s become the point man in Idaho’s pursuit of the WAC.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity,” said Spear, a former college basketball player. “You sort of approach it like (an athletic event). You make sure you practice and you’re prepared and you go in and do the best you can.”

Adding Idaho for football only would give the WAC nine teams, providing each school with four home games and four away. However, nine schools would create clumsy scheduling for basketball and other sports because one member wouldn’t have a travel partner.

The WAC could delay its decision, but Idaho faces a timeline. It must notify the Sun Belt by June 30th if it plans to leave.

If the WAC ultimately denies Idaho, it would leave the school asking hard questions about its future in Division I-A football. The Vandals would be stuck in the Sun Belt, likely in all sports beginning in 2005, facing hefty travel bills against opponents with little name recognition to UI followers. If the WAC turns down Idaho with the intention of adding the Vandals in a couple of years, it is possible Idaho won’t be in Division I to field the call.

“We need to do something that would make geographic sense,” Spear said. “We just can’t continue on this path.”

The WAC has stability issues of its own with four members (Boise State, Nevada, Hawaii and Fresno State) hoping someday to be on the Mountain West’s expansion list. Louisiana Tech is perhaps a better fit regionally in Conference USA or the Sun Belt.

Idaho was passed over when the WAC selected New Mexico State and Utah State last October and when Boise State and Louisiana Tech were added for the 2001 season.

The Vandals have been hounded by conference affiliation issues seemingly since moving up to Division I-A football in 1996.

That uncertainty could be resolved – or prolonged – Friday.