Partway through Thursday night’s basketball game between the University of Hawaii and UC Santa Barbara, Big West Conference commissioner Dennis Farrell turned to UH booster Ernie Nishizaki and said, "Do you realize that Hawaii is probably playing its closest geographical opponent tonight?"
The schools are separated by 2,481 miles, and that’s as close as UH can get in Division I in most sports.
Which was one of the chief selling points the conference made to get UH to shift most of its teams out of the widely scattered Western Athletic Conference, where some opponents were 4,000 miles distant, to the Big West for the 2012-13 school year.
The Big West, which was composed solely of California-based institutions for six years until UH joined eight months ago, is looking to help improve a profile once derided as a "bus league."
The 62-year-old Farrell, who will shortly enter his 33rd year with the conference and 21st as commissioner, has been in town meeting with UH officials this week.
He took time out to answer some questions from the Star-Advertiser.
Q: In contrast to the Mountain West, where Hawaii is expected to pay travel subsidies for old and new members, is the Big West’s policy still that anybody who follows Hawaii into the conference does not receive a travel subsidy from UH?
A: Yes, that is correct. Part of the agreement we have with Hawaii is that it pays for the members who were already in the conference when they joined. Any new member that comes in (after UH) accepts what they are joining — or they don’t join.
San Diego State and Boise State, when they were planning to come in, weren’t going to receive (subsidies) from Hawaii.
Q: With Pacific leaving after this season and membership going back to nine, do you foresee expansion soon?
A: I’ll never say never, but I’m not so sure that we’re in a rush to expand.
Conferences expand for one of two reasons: One is for survival and the other is for opportunity. And, fortunately, we’ve been in a good position the last couple of years of being able to look at opportunity. I think there would be opportunities for us if we were to expand, but I think we have to look and ask whether it would make us better.
Q: With the fact that Hawaii is the only conference member playing football at the Football Bowl Subdivision level and carrying a bigger budget, does that pose concerns with the members?
A: I don’t have too much concern because, I think, budget-wise, (Hawaii’s) other sports are pretty comparable to our other schools.
So, the only worry we really have is that the Mountain West Conference would suddenly decide to take Hawaii in all sports. I know that is not Hawaii’s preference. They like being in a conference where travel is more reasonable and that makes missed class time more reasonable.
Q: What has the Big West been doing to raise the level of its men’s basketball?
A: We’re constantly trying to do things like increase our media exposure, primarily TV. The only thing we can do is give our coaches the tools that we have at our disposal to help them elevate recruiting. It all comes down to getting athletes and coaching them.
But we can help get the coaches the tools they can use to recruit a higher level of athletic talent into the conference.
That’s why we moved our conference tournament out of the Anaheim Convention Center (7,500 seating capacity) and into the Honda Center (18,336 seating capacity), to have it in a big-time facility.
A few years ago we also hired a new coordinator of basketball officials to elevate us there. Most of our officials also work the Pac-12. The officials who worked (the UH game) this weekend are also Pac-12 officials who will work our tournament and will be going on to the NCAA Tournament.
Q: What is the conference looking for from Hawaii?
A: Success.
The basketball program continues to elevate and there is continued success in women’s volleyball and strength in softball. Baseball fits in well. I think that’s what Hawaii brings.
And when they play on the mainland, the following Hawaii has will be beneficial for all of our schools from an attendance standpoint.
Q: Is there a push to get the basketball teams, especially the men, to play tougher nonconference schedules?
A: We used to have something like that, although, unfortunately, it got watered down over the years.
The thing I preach to our schools now is to schedule for success but be honest with yourself.
If you think your team can be good, if it is senior-laden and this is a year you have a shot at being considered for an at-large (NCAA) selection, it is incumbent upon you to upgrade your schedule as much as you can.
Yet, at the same time, if a school has a new coach or lost a lot of seniors, it is hard for me to (impose) a rule that you have to play a killer nonconference schedule that has you come into conference 0-9.
