UH suddenly among WAC's well-to-do
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
When the dust settles from the reshuffling of Western Athletic Conference membership, the University of Hawai'i will suddenly find itself in the league's financial upper crust.
The amount it spends on athletics, $18.1 million in 2002-'03, the last year for which all schools' budgets were available, still figures to be the second highest among schools that will form the "new" WAC in 2005-'06.
Such will be part of the changes produced by the departure of comparatively well-heeled Rice ($19.9 million), Southern Methodist ($20.1 million), Texas-El Paso ($10.6 million) and Tulsa ($15.7 million) and the impending arrival of less lavishly funded Idaho ($9.6 million), New Mexico State ($9.3 million) and Utah State ($8.87 million).
After decades of mostly hovering near the middle of the WAC in expenditures and revenues, the Warriors/Rainbow Warriors/Rainbow Wahine/Rainbows figure to trail just Fresno State ($20 million plus) in the soon-to-be nine-school conference. UH and FSU, in fact, could have budgets nearly double some members. With the changes, the average WAC-member budget will drop from $15.4 million to $12.8 million. By comparison, the Mountain West Conference average is $20.4 million.
But will the comparatively buffed budget be enough to help elevate UH into a position of dominance in WAC arenas and stadiums?
"We would hope so," UH-Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert said Friday, after the WAC Board of Directors voted to add Idaho as the conference's ninth team for 2005-'06. "We would hope that we will be one of the leaders in the WAC athletically and also academically."
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