Mountain West-raided WAC too bloodied to fight

ELY — UNLV continues its football camp in this small town of the Steptoe Valley, shuttling from hotels to afternoon drills to the next command of new coach Bobby Hauck, all the while its conference is intimately involved with the saga that is conference expansion.

Mountain West officials could be in worse shape today. They could be Karl Benson.

I have to believe the only person within college athletics more depressed than Benson is Tina Kunzer-Murphy, because who knows what the poor woman might do if Brigham Young really does go independent in football and the Las Vegas Bowl executive director no longer can invite the Cougars to the December game. Selection committee members all over Las Vegas must be breaking out in hives at the mere thought.

Benson has much bigger problems.

The Western Athletic Conference he oversees finally has been leveled by the Mountain West for good, that after years of tussling like schoolboys at recess for non-Bowl Championship Series supremacy, the WAC is too bruised and bloodied and devoid of good football programs to continue the fight.

What began in 1999 as eight schools departing the then 16-team WAC while citing reasons like a loss of traditional rivalries and rising travel costs and insufficient revenue streams over the years has become a defining struggle for those chasing automatic BCS inclusion.

Until now, the Mountain West had an obvious but not insurmountable lead. Utah (twice) and Texas Christian of the Mountain West have earned at-large BCS berths since the split, while Boise State and Hawaii of the WAC have also.

The rivalry between the leagues, while intense, at least owned a healthy edge to it.

That all changed Wednesday.

By inviting Fresno State and UNR into its home as a way to try to soften the blow of BYU hinting it is about to choose an independent route, the Mountain West all but defined the WAC as a football conference not worth the logos it soon will feature.

"I think over the last five, six years, the conferences have been good for one another in terms of the number of football games we have played and competed," Benson said. "The (two leagues) have separated themselves from other non-automatic BCS qualifiers. We expect to continue a healthy and productive relationship with the Mountain West.

"I think we’re all chasing the BCS, we’re all chasing recruiting exposure and notoriety and the financial windfall that comes with the BCS. We’re all positioning ourselves for a bigger piece."

Benson was speaking via teleconference, so it was impossible to notice whether he was offering such a political view while banging his head against a wall and sobbing uncontrollably. But this is college athletics at its most brutal and seemingly heartless level. Benson couldn’t possibly tear into fellow commissioner Craig Thompson for purging the WAC of three quality football programs since June, considering the WAC soon will pursue others from lower-tiered leagues and divisions within the NCAA.

Having lost its ninth-grade skirmish with the Mountain West, the WAC is poised to start picking off middle schoolers.

It’s a dog-eat-dog existence, but by the looks of things, the WAC on Wednesday was devoured for good when it comes to mattering in the BCS world.

Think about it: Texas State. Texas-San Antonio. Montana. Sacramento State. These are teams being reported as possible additions to the WAC.

What, no Bishop Gorman?

How can the WAC survive and prosper enough in today’s BCS-driven environment to offer a legitimate Football Bowl Subdivision level of football five years from now?

Benson isn’t going easily. He lashed out at Fresno State and UNR for being selfish. He said the WAC will hold both schools to a $5 million buyout clause, even though UNR never officially signed the agreement. Lawyers will get involved. Nothing about it seems amicable. None of it will change the bottom line.

"In today’s intercollegiate environment, (raiding other leagues) has become fairly routine and fairly standard," Benson said. "On Friday there was (WAC) solidarity. Four days later, there was defection."

On Friday, the 12-year skirmish between the Mountain West and WAC continued, each exchanging blows and trying best to position themselves as the nation’s top non-BCS conference.

Four days later, the fight was over. The final bell had rung. The WAC staggered back to its corner, bloodied, bruised, beaten.

It doesn’t mean the Mountain West is any closer to automatic status. Without BYU, it might never earn such a place.

It does mean the WAC is finished being part of any such discussions, unless the idea of a San Jose State-Texas State clash suddenly draws a breath of interest from anyone.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618.