WAC mulls expansion amid Boise State rumors

The Boise State Broncos have made it perfectly clear that they no longer desire to be a member of the Western Athletic Conference.

"Bob Kustra (Boise State president) and Gene Bleymaier (athletic director) have made it very clear their preference to be in the Mountain West Conference," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said Monday night.

The WAC can now only sit and wait until all of the dominoes begin to fall.

Benson said he thought the first of those dominoes would fall on Monday. He scheduled a teleconference with the WAC media on Monday because, he said, "all the signals were out there that an invitation for Boise to join the Mountain West Conference would come (Monday)."

That invitation, though, did not come as the Mountain West announced on Monday that its plans to expand have been put on hold. The Mountain West, like the WAC, is also sitting and waiting to see what movement will occur in conferences such as the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Conference USA, among others.

"The bad part about it is the WAC and the Mountain West are reactors," Nevada Wolf Pack athletic director Cary Groth told the Fresno Bee on Monday. "We're going to have to react with what happens with the power conferences. When they pull the trigger we have to react because we're not part of the trigger pulling."

Boise's State's invitation to join to MWC, however, seems to just be a matter of time. Benson said such a move by Boise to the MWC will have to be made by July 1 without the WAC board of directors inflicting penalties on Boise State.

"I'd be shocked if it (the invitation) wasn't made," Groth told the Fresno Bee.

Benson said that the WAC cannot prevent Boise State from leaving the WAC.

"We have to recognize if a school desires to be a member of another conference that is their prerogative and that's their choice," said Benson, who is in Las Vegas with WAC presidents and athletic directors on Tuesday at the conference's annual meetings.

"It's been pretty well documented that if an invitation comes they will accept. No one would have been surprised (Monday) had an invitation come from the Mountain West and Boise accepted. Now it's just a matter if that invitation comes in the future."

Benson said he is confident the WAC will survive and thrive should Boise State leave. "We've been planning over the course of the last several weeks should something happen," Benson said. "Despite what happens, the WAC will continue to be a credible and recognized conference. We have a great foundation of schools."

Benson said the WAC is prepared to replace Boise and possibly even expand the conference.

"We have a long list of potential members," Benson said. "Our vast geography, from Ruston, La., to Honolulu, provides us a lot of options and opportunities. Ideally, we'd like to be able to constrict our boundaries and make them smaller. But we would certainly not rule out the possibility of 12 teams and two divisions that would take into account the central time zone."

The WAC, Benson said, is also looking at a number ("more than five or six") of Football Championship Series (formerly Division I-AA schools) as possible new members.

"I look at this as an opportunity for the WAC to get better should Boise decide to stay in the WAC and if they elect to leave there are plenty of options for us," Benson said.

Everything the WAC and the MWC does will likely depend on what the larger and more higher profile conferences do first.

"This unbelievably volatile period of poker playing going on is unprecedented," Benson said. "We want to be prepared but we don't want to jump the gun. That's why the Mountain West decided to take a pause. The reason the Mountain West didn't make a decision is because of all the moving parts. Every conference has the potential to be impacted by these changes."

Benson said he expects movement to come "sooner rather than later."

"It might be dramatic and it might not be," Benson said. "But we all believe there will be some movement that will result in a domino effect."

Boise State has been the WAC's most high profile school over the last five seasons or so. It's football program has played in two Bowl Championship Series games and has given the WAC national media attention.

Boise has brought a lot of media attention and a lot of value to the WAC," Benson said. "And we certainly hope Boise stays in the WAC."

The WAC commissioner, though, spoke as if Boise's move to the Mountain West was inevitable.

"Boise State's membership in the WAC has been very, very valuable to Boise State," Benson said. "Because of the WAC, Boise State has become a nationally recognized program. I'm confident that if Boise State left the WAC somebody will step up (and become the WAC's flagship program nationally).

"There will always be a WAC team in the BCS mix."