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Saturday, May 30, 1998

Big West Conference hopes to expand with WAC survivors

DENTON, Texas (AP) -- The Big West Conference hopes to expand by luring some of the schools left behind in the breakup of the Western Athletic Conference.

Half the schools in the 16-team WAC announced this week they will leave next year to form their own conference. That has prompted speculation the remaining eight teams will try to expand the WAC by adding Big West schools.

Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell said Thursday the conference members, including the University of North Texas in Denton, have pledged not to join what's left of the WAC.

But that won't stop the Big West from making overtures to WAC survivors.

Farrell said the Big West's top priority is to expand to 10 teams in football and 16 in basketball, all in time for the 1999-2000 seasons.

The conference hopes to lure former members San Jose State and and Fresno State in California, Farrell said, plus two of the five remaining WAC schools in Texas and Oklahoma: Texas Christian, Southern Methodist, Rice, Texas-El Paso and Tulsa.

The Denton (Texas) Record Chronicle reported that Texas-El Paso and Tulsa are the favorites for Big West expansion because they would be geographical rivals for two current conference members, New Mexico State and North Texas.

Farrell said he hopes to complete expansion plans by July 1.

Whether the Big West can lure any of the WAC survivors may be more clear after this weekend, when WAC school presidents hold a previously scheduled meeting in Monterey, Calif. The eight remaining schools still hold out hopes of preventing half the conference -- including its most successful athletic programs -- from bolting.

While the Big West is not as prestigious as the current WAC, some Big West officials think the jilted WAC teams will be receptive to joining the smaller conference. They doubt the eight WAC survivors, who are spread out over four time zones, can survive as a workable conference.

WAC Commissioner Karl Benson has said the WAC may try to attract some Big West schools in order to expand beyond eight members. Among the schools mentioned as WAC takeover targets are North Texas, New Mexico State, Boise State, Utah State and Nevada.

North Texas would give serious consideration to joining a conference with WAC survivors TCU, SMU and Rice, the Denton Record Chronicle reported.

Craig Helwig, athletic director at North Texas, said the school has not talked with TCU, SMU and Rice, and said such an alliance would be difficult to put together, due to the near-constant realignment of college leagues.

"We are in the Big West Conference," Helwig said. "There are some strengths in the conference. We will do everything we can to strengthen the conference."

Tulsa athletic director Judy MacLeod told the Tulsa (Okla.) World she would be shocked if Tulsa and the four remaining WAC schools don't stick together. But, she said, that could include forming a new league.

SMU president R. Gerald Turner said Thursday the four schools should remain together.

TCU chancellor William Tucker said his school has enjoyed a long relationship with SMU and Rice and, more recently, with Tulsa.

"We can continue to develop our rivalries and it just makes a lot of sense," Tucker said of the five WAC eastern schools staying together.