Going long won’t just be a pass play in the University of Hawaii’s football playbook; soon it will become a description of the Warriors’ new conference home that will stretch at least 4,800 miles from Honolulu to Greenville, N.C.
The Mountain West, which UH is scheduled to join as a football-only member in July, will dissolve and merge with the remnants of Conference USA in 2013 to form an as-yet-unnamed "super conference" of at least 16 members, according to announcements Monday.
Most of UH’s other sports will compete in the California-based Big West beginning in 2012 as the Warriors leave the Western Athletic Conference after 33 years.
"I think this is terrific for UH football, for everybody involved," Warriors football coach Norm Chow said.
"This is excellent for UH," said Jim Donovan, UH athletic director.
Increasingly ravaged by defections, the MWC and C-USA will repackage as a regionally based association July 1, 2013, that officials say is designed to provide enhanced stability and marketing opportunities. Expansion to as many as 18 to 24 members is a possibility.
Besides UH, the schools involved are the Air Force Academy, Alabama-Birmingham, Colorado State, East Carolina, Fresno State, Marshall, Nevada, Nevada-Las Vegas, New Mexico, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Texas-El Paso, Tulane, Tulsa and Wyoming.
Already there is speculation that Temple University of Philadelphia and Miami-based Florida International may be asked to join.
Talks between the two midmajor conferences, then totaling 22 members, gained momentum last summer as a football-only union. But as the defections began to mount, discussions shifted to an all-sports amalgamation. San Diego State, Boise State and Texas Christian will depart the MWC by 2013, while C-USA loses Memphis, Central Florida, Houston and Southern Methodist.
Chief executives from the remaining 16 member-schools, including UH President M.R.C. Greenwood, met Sunday in Dallas, where "there was a rock-solid commitment to move this forward," said Neal Smatresk, president of Nevada-Las Vegas and chairman of the MWC board of directors.
Smatresk, who was a vice chancellor at UH, said the Warriors would gain "stability and predictable scheduling with a region they are already well familiar with."
Initially, at least, plans call for two geographically based divisions that Scott Cowen, Tulane president and C-USA chairman, said "will look fairly similar to the way the Mountain West looks now and C-USA looks now."
UTEP, a former Western Athletic Conference member now in C-USA, is expected to move into the West.
But Cowen said, "Over time we definitely anticipate there will be some crossover games," meaning teams from western and eastern divisions would eventually compete against each other.
Officials said there was no decision yet on what travel subsidies UH might have to pay as a condition of membership.
Cowen said plans call for not only a championship game in football, but semifinal contests as well.
Smatresk said, "This is an exciting development that will stabilize the current conferences and create the first truly national conference with members in five time zones and television viewership from coast to coast and on to Hawaii."
Cowen said officials "have had some very preliminary conversations" with potential TV partners.
People familiar with the concept but not authorized to speak on behalf of the participants say they expect TV rights fees to more than double from the approximately $14 million C-USA and $12 million the MWC have been receiving.
MWC is under contract with CBS College Sports, Versus and The Mountain sports networks. C-USA’s partners are Fox and CBS.
Greenwood said, "(UH) is excited and honored to be part of this new athletic conference as a football-only member. The presidents and chancellors are creating a new opportunity that will take a more principled approach to college athletics, will enhance academics and fiscal discipline, and will provide new competitive arenas for our college athletes."
Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw said, "There is a lot of movement happening in conferences right now, but from my view this new conference is a healthy approach for our football program. … This move forward is actually quite exciting in a number of ways for our UH-Manoa football program. Clearly, there is a need for universities to enhance the stability of our athletics programs so we can truly focus more attention on enhancing academics, improving the student-athlete experience and meeting fiscal realities — having the stability of a larger new conference would help."
Terry Holland, East Carolina athletic director, said, "We like the idea of being associated with Hawaii, as we enjoyed our trip and win over Boise State in Hawaii Bowl. However, since we will be in different divisions, we are not likely to play very often."
Cowen said, "Hawaii is a great school, a great program, and we’re glad to have them as part of the partnership."
CLICK HERE TO ENLARGE IMAGE
