Karl Benson understands the pain.

Last week’s departures that will leave the Pac-12 Conference with four members — Stanford, Cal, Washington State and Oregon State — beginning next year conjured unpleasant memories for Benson.

It was 25 years ago when Benson, as commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference, experienced a similar abandonment — and betrayal.

“The way I always described it was ‘the rug being pulled out from under you,’” Benson said of eight teams breaking away from the 16-team WAC to form the Mountain West. The University of Hawaii was one of the eight WAC schools left behind.

While the downsizing of the Pac-12 came in stages — with four teams announcing their intent to join the Big Ten and four heading to the Big 12 — the WAC’s secessions were a swift cut. But Benson noted: “the eight (WAC) schools that got left behind aren’t any different from Stanford, Cal, Washington State and Oregon State. It’s very, very similar.”

In 1996, the WAC added six teams to expand to a 16-team conference. For scheduling, the teams were separated into four four-team quadrants. Each year, quadrants were paired to form two eight-team divisions. Then the pairings would change the next year.

But BYU and Utah, according to Benson, “weren’t happy with the direction the conference was headed.” During a conference meeting of school presidents in May 1998, the agenda’s main item was eliminating the quadrant scheduling. The vote was 10-6 to drop the quadrants and create two permanent divisions.

“Coming out of that meeting with six schools opposed, you knew there was some unhappiness and some work to be done to make everybody happy,” Benson said.

BYU and Utah then convinced Colorado State, Air Force and Wyoming to join in seceding from the WAC to form the Mountain West. “Rather than wait to see if it can get fixed, they wanted to start a new conference,” Benson said. “That caught everybody off guard.”

At a clandestine meeting at the Denver International Airport in June 1998, those five schools — now joined by New Mexico, San Diego State and UNLV — finalized secession plans. It was a well-thought move. The secessionists left behind enough schools that the WAC, in theory, could function even if it did not add any replacements.

But the move had an immediate impact to the WAC. A nearly finalized television contract intended for a 16-team WAC went away. The WAC also lost its bowl ties.

“The five schools, along with the three they invited to join, they knew what they were doing in terms of the damage that it was going to do to the WAC.” Benson said. “I truly believe they thought the WAC would dissolve.”

The WAC, led by then UH president Kenneth Mortimer, planned to sue the secessionists, citing a breach of fiduciary duty because they met separately to plot the escape. But two days before the lawsuit was to be filed, it was learned WAC members TCU and SMU were meeting with Duke, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and Tulane about the possibility of forming a private-school league. “When that got reported,” Benson said, “the WAC’s lawsuit blew up. It failed right on the spot.”

The remaining WAC was left with disparities in geography (stretched between Hawaii and Houston) and composition (four public schools, four state schools). “I was left with eight schools,” Benson said. “I, at least, had a foundation. … the plan was then: how do we rebuild the WAC?”

The answer came in 1999, when the WAC voted on adding Nevada and Boise State for the 2000-2001 academic year. Nevada, as a land-grant university with a distinguished law school, was unanimously approved. Boise State, Benson’s alma mater, was initially rejected. A year later, when TCU announced plans to leave the WAC for Conference USA, Boise State was invited to join the WAC beginning in 2001.

Soon after, the WAC went on a remarkable run. Boise State upset Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, and a year later UH played in the Sugar Bowl. Fresno State won the 2007 College World Series. Tulsa reached the final eight of the NCAA basketball tournament.

“Despite that rug being pulled from under the WAC, we were able to make the right additions,” Benson said. “And schools performed in the way to allow the WAC to have credibility. And the WAC was relevant. I think it’s a great story that doesn’t get told often enough.”

But after 10 years, there were more departures — Boise State to the MW in 2011; Fresno State, Nevada and UH in 2012 — and the run had ended. But from that breakup in the 1998, Benson said, “the WAC survived. Not only that, we thrived.”

Benson, now retired and living in Denver, said the remaining Pac-12 members have options: 1) Find a way into the Big Ten or Big 12; 2) Place teams in the ACC; 3) Merge with the Mountain West; 4) Reload with some teams from the MW. But 13 months away from the start of the 2024-25 academic year, when the defections go into effect, the remaining Pac-12 schools are racing the clock not only for football but their other sports. The lesson from the WAC is: act quickly.