Ags glad to have new WAC rival

LOGAN — The addition of the University of Idaho to the Western Athletic Conference earlier this month came as no surprise to Utah State president Kermit L. Hall or football coach Mick Dennehy.

They both agreed that Idaho was a perfect fit for the WAC.

"It makes sense ultimately in creating some additional regional rivalry," Hall said.

Dennehy agreed.

"This just made so much more sense geographically for the simple reason there is more identification," he said. "There's more (fan) knowledge of Boise, Reno, Moscow and so forth. It just made too much sense not to happen once the ACC (Athletic Coast Conference) started the domino effect."

With the addition of Idaho, the WAC has now filled the vacancies left by Tulsa, Rice and Southern Methodist, which left the WAC for Conference-USA.

Utah State and New Mexico State were added to the league in last November.

"I think I felt all along that Idaho had a real legitimate shot (to get into the WAC) and I kind of hoped that they would," Dennehy said.

Financially, the three newest members of the WAC will benefit the most, due in large part to travel. Instead of making long trips to the south to play Middle Tennessee, La., Lafayette, La., Monroe, Troy State and Arkansas State, the schools will play much closer to home in Boise State, Nevada, San Jose State, Fresno, UTEP and Tulsa. They will still have lengthy trips to Louisiana Tech and Hawaii, however.

"For us it is a heckuva deal," Dennehy said. "It's a school we've got some longtime ties too and have a good relationship with over the years."

Utah State, Idaho and New Mexico State are all members of the Sun Belt Conference and will play their final year in the Sun Belt this year before beginning play in the WAC in 2005.

"I'm really glad we had an opportunity to affiliate with the Sun Belt Conference," Dennehy said. "It gave our kids a chance to play in a conference. To be honest with you, if that's where we would have ended up for a long time I would have been happy."

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