Even including all the other MWC changes that are going to happen, this move will make the conference quite a bit darker.
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<h1>Hawaii joins MWC, Big West for 2012</h1>
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By Andy Katz
http://search.espn.go.com/andy-katz/
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Hawaii is leaving the WAC and has accepted a football-only membership
in the Mountain West Conference for the 2012-13 season, according to
the MWC.
The Warriors will play the rest of their sports in the
Big West Conference. The Warriors women's teams used to compete in the
Big West, which currently is an all-California league.
Hawaii joined the Mountain West Conference for football only on Friday
in an expected move, becoming the fourth team to leave the WAC in six
months, writes ESPN.com's Andrea Adelson.
Blog
"We're headed in a new direction, and this is a
really a historic and great day for the University of Hawaii," athletic
director Jim Donovan said. "This is what our coaches and our fans want,
and we delivered."
UC Irvine chancellor Michael Drake, chair of
the Big West board of directors, said in a statement, "We are excited
and pleased with the addition of Hawaii to the Big West Conference. In
assessing Hawaii, the Board carefully considered and was impressed by
both its legacy of athletic success and its commitment to academic
excellence."
Hawaii's move coincides with TCU's departure for the
Big East on July 1, 2012. Nevada and Fresno State also will join the
Mountain West on July 1, 2012, to give the conference 10
football-playing members and nine overall sport participants.
"The
Mountain West Conference is very pleased to gain the University of
Hawaii as a football-only member beginning with the 2012 season," MWC
commissioner Craig Thompson said Friday.
The 24th-ranked Warriors
are the WAC's longest-running member, and shared the conference football
title with No. 10 Boise State and Nevada (No. 15 BCS, No. 13 AP) this
season.
"Hawaii's outstanding football program and television
value fit perfectly with the MWC's strategic initiatives for the future
direction of the conference. We look forward to adding the Warriors to
the MWC family," Thompson said.
The Warriors' departure is another
crushing blow to the WAC. It is left with existing members Louisiana
Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Idaho and Utah State. New
members Texas State, Texas-San Antonio and Denver, which doesn't play
football, join in 2012. The WAC is losing Boise State to the MWC in
June.
Donovan expressed concern that the WAC was moving toward
the Central Time Zone with the addition of the Texas schools, which
would have increased travel costs for Hawaii along with student-athletes
spending more time away from school.
He said the TV agreements
still need to be worked out. Other financial details weren't disclosed,
but Donovan said, "We couldn't afford not to do it."
Montana
decided against joining the WAC to stay in the Big Sky Conference, which
plays football at the Football Championship Subdivision level. Seattle
was next on the WAC's list as a non-football playing member, but losing
Hawaii makes the need for another football-playing member key. Utah
State initially turned down MWC membership when it assumed BYU would be
joining the WAC and Fresno State and Nevada would be staying. But when
Fresno State and Nevada decided to leave for the MWC, BYU was left with
little choice but to go independent and join the West Coast Conference
in all other sports starting on July 1, 2011.
The MWC, meanwhile,
will look a lot like the WAC used to in football by 2012-13, with Boise
State, Fresno State, Nevada, Hawaii, Colorado State, San Diego State,
UNLV, New Mexico, Wyoming and Air Force.
The MWC is losing Utah
to the Pac-12 next season and TCU to the Big East in 2012. Both of those
schools have played in BCS bowl games. They are replaced by Boise State
and Hawaii, which also have had BCS bowl bids.
Hawaii is a
natural fit in the Big West with most of its non-revenue sport
recruitment coming from the West Coast. Hawaii's women's programs were
in the Big West from 1984 to '96 before joining its men's programs in
the WAC. The Big West membership includes Cal Poly, UC Davis, Cal State
Fullerton, Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, UC Irvine, UC
Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and Pacific, the only private school in the
league.
Big West commissioner Dennis Farrell said Hawaii will pay
the standard $100,000 equity buy-in. Farrell also said the Big West
will move to an 18-game, round-robin schedule in 2012-13 in basketball,
up from the 16 games the league currently plays.
The Big West begins a five-year deal in 2011 with the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., for its conference tournament.
Farrell said there will be some travel considerations for the mainland schools in going to Hawaii for games.
"There will be a cost sharing that is being worked out," Farrell said.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5907111
Edited by: Colonel_Reb 
