Idaho AD addresses WAC expansion, more

University of Idaho athletic director Rob Spear spoke with reporters this morning, touching on football scheduling, WAC expansion, the Kibbie Dome renovation and trying to bolster attendance at basketball games.

Click below for all the details.

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What follows are highlights from Spear’s teleconference. This was the first of monthly briefings from the AD to the media.

On changes to the Kibbie Dome:

“The Dome is going to close down for good on March 7 (for remodeling), and I’m excited to get this thing underway and put the finishing touches on the Kibbie Dome because the premium seating will be the best seating in college football without a doubt because of the proximity to the field and what we have planned there.”

On basketball facilities:

“Our next phase and our next goal for facility renovation is to take care of basketball. We’ve done some facility planning. We’ve done some feasibility studies, and we have identified a site that would be an excellent place for an events center on the north side of the Kibbie Dome. … We’ve also looked at doing some renovations to Memorial Gym. But the next big capital phase for us would be to look at doing something for basketball, because we absolutely have to get basketball out of the Dome and certainly get basketball out of Memorial Gym during those early contests.”

On WAC expansion:

Spear said the WAC continues to explore expansion, and that recent NCAA legislation changes have bolstered the conference’s ability to add teams — particularly from the FCS ranks.

While the NCAA changed the rule requiring conferences to have at least six football-playing schools together for at least five years, Spear explained another “piece of a legislation that in order for a school to consider a football bowl subdivision conference they have to be invited by an existing FBS conference. If we look at the landscape out West and we look at the schools that have expressed interesting in joining the FBS conference, we think the WAC is the only conference that’s going to be in position to invite them.”

“I’m pretty confident,” Spear continued, “the Pac-10 is not going to invite an FCS school. The Mountain West is not going to do that. But the WAC is certainly in position to grow our membership and invite schools because of that legislation. So we’re working hard. We’re moving forward. We’ve had many meetings, and we’ll have another meeting next Friday down in Las Vegas.

“Things are involving and I hope we will grow the WAC membership beyond the eight schools we have for 2012.”

On how the WAC should look:

“I really think we need to evolve the WAC into becoming a 12- of 14-team league so we can have a North and South division in the Western Athletic Conference. That would be a great thing in creating some rivalries on the North side and also would position to take care of some travel costs that are issues with every program.

On football scheduling:

“I look out into 2012, I see seven football-playing schools (in the WAC). That means six conference games. … I have to find six nonconference games. So by expanding the WAC, I think it helps us reduce the number of nonconference games I’m going to have to find.

“Before this reshuffling took place, we had our schedule solidified through 2014. … In 2012 I need two football games. It’s late, really, in the timeline of scheduling games to be finding teams. But there are some opportunities out there. Ideally we would probably look at playing at road nonconference game — probably a payday — and then find maybe a MAC opponent to fill that other spot and create a home-and-home opportunity.”

On basketball attendance, which is worst in the WAC (the Vandals have averaged 1,248 fans in 13 games this season; the next-worst is San Jose State’s 1,837 per game):

“Well, I’ve absolutely been disappointed in our attendance. I think we’re putting a great product on the floor and our teams are fun to watch. I think we need to become more consistent with our scheduling. I know we’ve conducted focus groups with our student body and one of the things they talk about is consistency when we play. And as you know, the WAC plays every night of the week and a lot of it is dictated by television. But I really think in the future the conference really needs to go to a Thursday/Saturday format for both the men and women so we can build some consistency for our fan base. So they know we play on Thursday and Saturdays and they can plan accordingly.

“We need to control just what we can control, and that’s put a quality product on the floor and continue to win some basketball games. And I think that excitement will follow and we’ll start generating fan support. But it really starts with our students. We need to get them more engaged and more behind the program because when they’re energized and they show up, it adds to our atmosphere and people get excited about that and the community has more buy-in.

“It’s frustrating but all we can do is continue to put a quality product on the floor and continue to work and find ways to get people to these basketball games.”