MWC head not worried about UH football fate

LAS VEGAS » Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson said there is no concern the financially challenged University of Hawaii athletic department will have difficulty sustaining its football program.

“I don’t lose sleep over it,” Thompson said during Tuesday’s MWC media days. “Hawaii has played football since 1909. They’ve been playing football for an awfully long time. It’s so important to that state. The state has helped the athletic department several times just since they’ve been in the Mountain West Conference to sustain a football program. I don’t see that football program falling aside.”

Thompson said there have not been any discussions on the league easing the travel subsidies the Rainbow Warriors pay to visiting teams. The subsidies range between $150,000 and $175,000.

“We haven’t brought that up,” Thompson said, noting several school leaders “use the language ‘a deal is a deal is a deal.’”

In joining the MWC as a football-only member in 2012, the Warriors agreed to pay for the cost of charter flights for visiting teams. The arrangement was made between UH and nine MWC teams. A year later, San Jose State and Utah State joined. Both schools receive travel subsidies when they play in Hawaii.

Thompson said there are five different membership agreements with seven schools that joined or decided not to leave in the past five years.

“You’ve got half the presidents and ADs who are new going, ‘How did this (deal) happen?’ Well, your guy three years ago voted for it,” Thompson said.

Thompson said there are no plans to amend UH’s television deal with the league. In exchange for keeping the $2.3 million received from local television rights, the Warriors do not share in the MWC’s television payouts.

UH expected to finish fifth in West Division

The Warriors are predicted to finish fifth in the six-team West Division, according to a poll the MWC released Tuesday at its media day.

San Diego State is predicted to finish first in the West. Defending MWC champion Boise State is picked to win the Mountain Division.

“That’s a little disappointing,” said UH left tackle Ben Clarke, who is representing the Warriors at the annual meet-the-press event. “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a prediction. We’ll show ‘em.”

Clarke said the predictions are based largely on past performances. The Warriors were 4-9 in 2014 and 8-29 in Norm Chow’s first three seasons as head coach.

“We haven’t had a good record for the past three years, so I can’t blame anyone for guessing we’re going to be second-to-last in the (division),” Clarke said. “I think we have a lot better team this year. We’ll show them what we have.”

UH quarterback Max Wittek, who redshirted last year after transferring from USC, said it would be “more of an outlandish thing if they were to put us higher based on what’s happened in the past few years. For us, at least myself, we’d almost rather have it that way. I think the less people think of us, the more we can prove them wrong. I think we can look forward to each and every opportunity to do that.”

Of the poll, Chow said: “I don’t pay attention to those things. That’s why you play the game.”