Three teams to leave WAC by 2012
The University of Nevada in Reno and California State University in Fresno have reached an agreement with officials in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), announcing both schools’ departure from the conference as of July 2012.
The departure will leave the conference with only six teams since Boise State has already planned to leave the conference, pending any new members.
Nevada, Fresno and Boise State are departing for the Mountain West Conference (MWC), which is playing its last season in the WAC. Notable teams in the MWC are Texas Christian University (TCU), Brigham Young University (BYU), Utah and the University of Nevada
in Las Vegas.
According to WAC officials, Nevada and Fresno did not inform the conference of their intent to depart the conference until after the deadline of July 1, which is set forth by the bylaws of the conference. This makes the situation a little more difficult
because the WAC had offered BYU membership in its conference for every sport except for football, and when the MWC found out, they decided to send invitations to Fresno and Nevada to join the MWC.
The reasoning behind the invites to Fresno and Nevada are due to the Mountain West Conference is losing teams of their own prior to the 2012 season. Utah is departing for the Pacific 12 (Pac-12) and Brigham Young is going independent in every sport except football,
which is joining the West Coast Conference.
By 2012, the conferences are going to be quite different than the conferences that are in placetoday.
WAC member schools in 2010 include Boise State, California State University at Fresno, University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of Idaho, Louisiana Tech University, University of Nevada at Reno, New Mexico State University, San Jose State University and Utah
State University.
After Boise State, Nevada and Fresno leave the conference, the WAC will only have six teams, making it difficult for the conference to survive. Either more schools get invited, or the conference will be in danger of folding.
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