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After eight seasons of paying for charter flights to bring its conference opponents here, college football’s most well-traveled team, the University of Hawaii, will finally have the Mountain West Conference pick up its tab for a change.
And, all it took was the Rainbow Warriors getting to their first MWC championship game.
The first across-the-ocean charter flight in three seasons for a team that is usually forced to go commercial on its own dime due to budget constraints is part of the trade-off for UH playing its first 15-game season.
The Warriors, who have already logged more air miles than 30 of 32 NFL teams, will pass the Raiders (32,023) and Rams (29,974), piling up at least 34,735 while playing one less game than an NFL regular season.
By holding off San Diego State, 14-11, Saturday night to clinch their first MWC West Division title, the Rainbow Warriors (8-4) added a second game to their postseason.
Now, after closing out their 13-game regular season with a senior night game against Army West Point (5-6) on Saturday at Aloha Stadium, the Warriors will play at 20th-ranked Boise State (10-1, with one game remaining) on Dec. 7 in Boise for the overall MWC championship and follow that up with an appearance in a yet-to-be announced bowl game.
Most likely that will be in the Dec. 24 SoFi Hawaii Bowl against Brigham Young (7-4, with one game remaining) or, an outside shot at the Dec. 21 Las Vegas Bowl against a Pac-12 opponent.
Wherever — and whoever — they play at bowl time, it will stretch the season beyond 14 games for the Warriors, a length they’ve gone to seven times, most recently in last year’s 8-6 finish.
While there is a shot at the program’s first double-digit win season since 2010. There is more. Players are due swag for the MWC title game and even more for their bowl appearance.
MWC policy also permits UH to take 72 players, two more than the regular-season roster maximum, which hasn’t always been fully employed.
And, they get to see how the other half travels. UH athletic director David Matlin confirmed “the (conference) underwrites transportation and will provide a charter for UH,” for the Dec. 7 title game.
In addition, as the MWC championship game visitor, Matlin said UH will receive a 5% honorarium after game expenses and Boise State, the host, will receive 10%. Any remaining profits are to be split equally among the conference’s 12 members.
According to its most recently available tax filing, the MWC took in $957,482 after expenses for its 2016 game.
As a condition of its 2011 membership agreement with the MWC, UH is required to pay so-called “travel cost sharing,” a euphemism that is apparently supposed to make travel subsidies more palatable while shelling out for the four conference opponents that come to Aloha Stadium each year. Teams from California receive $150,000 each and opponents from other states get $175,000.
This year that meant that UH paid out $625,000 to bring San Diego State, San Jose State, Fresno State and Air Force to Aloha Stadium. Next year the tab will be $700,000 to transport Boise State, New Mexico, Nevada and Nevada-Las Vegas here.
Meanwhile, UH was on its own going to Nevada, UNLV, New Mexico and Boise State in the regular season this year.
According to UH, the last time the Warriors chartered across the Pacific Ocean was to the 2016 game at Michigan. The usual plan is to take a commercial flight to the West Coast or Las Vegas and then charter to the final destination.
This time, UH will see how the other half travels on their dime.
Room to Win
The University of Hawaii football team has an 8-4 record with three games remaining to be played. A look at its winningest all-intercollegiate seasons.
Wins Year Record
12 2007 12-1
11 1992 11-2
11 2006 11-3
10 2010 10-4
10 2002 10-4
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
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