Big West Getting a Little Smaller

Nevada was accepted Wednesday into the Western Athletic Conference, landing another blow to the Big West Conference.

WAC officials voted in favor of adding Nevada, creating a nine-team conference. The conference had 16 teams last season, but eight teams, including BYU, Utah and Wyoming, left to form the Mountain West Conference.

Nevada, which will join the WAC for the 2000-01 season, has been lobbying the conference for the last year.

“The instability of football [in the Big West] was the major driving force for us,” Nevada Athletic Director Chris Ault said. “The way we look at it, the teams in WAC, with their exposure nationally, will be a major lift for us.”

A source within the Big West said the possibility of Nevada leaving has been known for a while, “but as of yesterday, we didn’t think it was going to happen.”

Among other concerns, Big West officials now must find a spot to hold its men’s and women’s basketball conference tournaments. They have been in Reno since 1996.

There are two more years left on a contract to play in Reno, but a Big West official said the tournament will leave after next year.

Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell said in a prepared statement, “. . . The Big West Conference presidents and athletic directors will take the next few weeks to review the league’s membership option. Any speculation would be inappropriate at this time.”

The conference will not add a school for at least one year, remaining at 11 schools for the 2000-01 season. A new school would have to be accepted before July 1 to be included in that season.

The news about Nevada made many in the Big West uneasy.

“What we need to do is find long-range stability, so we can build on that,” Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Athletic Director John McCutcheon said. “To say how we should go about that would be premature. We have to get together and see what the ramifications of this action are.”

For starters, it adds to the Big West’s vagabond history.

* This is the fifth school the Big West has lost to the WAC. San Diego State went first, jumping ship after the 1978 season. Fresno State left 1992, Nevada Las Vegas and San Jose State left after the 1995 season.

* The Big West held its California Bowl in Fresno, but it was moved to Las Vegas and changed to the Silver Bowl after Fresno State left. It was moved again, after Nevada Las Vegas left, and is now the Humanitarian Bowl at Boise State.

* The Big West held its basketball tournaments in Las Vegas for two years, but went to Reno when Las Vegas bolted. Now they must find a new home.

Utah State Athletic Director Bruce Van De Velde said conference members will meet to assess the situation and come up with a course of action within the next few weeks.

There was no secret that Nevada officials desired a move to the WAC, as did officials at Boise State, Utah State, New Mexico State and North Texas. Boise State and New Mexico State had formal bids denied this week.

While the discontent in the Big West is not limited to football--one school official said Pacific and UC Santa Barbara attempted to gain admission into the West Coast Conference last year, but were denied--there is a rift between the conference office and schools that have football teams over the number, and the quality, of conference teams.

“We needed to be somewhere where there was opportunity to upgrade the program, both in terms of quality of programs at the other institutions and in terms rivalries that are now open to us,” Nevada President Joseph Crowley said.

He pointed out the lack of California schools that played football as one reason Nevada left. Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State and Pacific have dropped programs in the last decade.

The Big West, which plays on the NCAA Division I-A level, will add Arkansas State as an associate member next season to keep a six-team football conference--the minimum acceptable under NCAA rules--as Big West officials try to cling to football. Arkansas State will not play any other sport in the conference.

UC Riverside wants to jump to NCAA Division I and officials there are eager to get into the Big West. The school does not have a football program and Big West officials have turned down all past overtures to join the conference.