Smack dab in the midst of Lindy’s West Football 2013 Preview magazine is an interesting full-page color advertisement for the University of Hawaii.

It features 22 UH athletes and cheerleaders attired in their uniforms behind an array of gloves, racquets, clubs and balls, representing the breadth of the school’s intercollegiate sports offerings.

"21 teams, one ‘Ohana" it reads, noting, "’Ohana is the Hawaiian word for family."

The object of the $4,000 ad in a football publication, UH officials said, was to let the Mountain West Conference — and everybody else — know of the school’s well-rounded athletic program.

Conspiracy theorists suggest another motive: Since UH is a football-only member of the MWC, with most of its other teams in the Big West, suspicion is it could be a subtle beginning to a campaign to have UH become an all-sports MWC participant.

Yes, it is summer and conspiracy theses tend to abound, especially when it comes to the shadowy world of conference migration.

But one year into its new, dual-conference membership, it is hard to imagine UH seeking an all-encompassing MWC membership as it had for much of its 32 years with the late, great Western Athletic Conference. Or, the schools that currently make up the MWC having the appetite for one.

For one thing, UH is already straining under the financial weight of its travel subsidy obligations to the MWC. UH forked over $650,000 for what the MWC officially terms "travel cost sharing" to bring four MWC opponents to Aloha Stadium last year. It also anted up another $517,000 to underwrite travel for visiting Big West teams. The last thing UH needs is to raise the ante by coughing up more moolah to bring baseball, tennis, golf and other teams from the Mountain Time Zone. Not to mention the additional missed class time involved in going to, say, Laramie, Wyo., instead of Long Beach, Calif.

Likewise, MWC member officials have said they have little interest in sending their Olympic sports teams this far, no matter who is paying the freight. Which is why UH was considered for membership on a football-only basis after years of being rejected on an all-sports bid.

Besides class time and transportation cost considerations, the Big West is just a better fit for most of UH’s teams, three of which won conference titles in the inaugural season.

It is a place, for example, where basketball can grow. Remember, the Rainbow Warriors finished fifth in the 10-member Big West. And the Big West was ranked 21st in strength among men’s basketball conferences while the MWC was third. Throw in the additional travel and playing at altitude and it would be hard for Rainbow Warrior hoops, in its current stage, to avoid the tail end of the MWC standings.

Meanwhile, it would make little sense to send Rainbow Wahine volleyball or Rainbow baseball to the MWC when they recruit the majority of their players from the California areas they now play in.

A year into its twin conference existence, UH definitely isn’t advertising for a change.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.