WAC on the verge of expansion again

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah State University may soon have itself another new conference mate. According to a report on BleedCrimson.net and BobcatReport.com, the Western Athletic Conference has offered an invitation to University of Texas Arlington, a non-football playing school currently located in the Southland Conference.

The University of Texas board of regents will be meeting July 14 to discuss, among other things, the possibility of the conference change, according to an agenda that can be found on their website. The document states that UT Arlington discussed a possible move with WAC commissioner Karl Benson mid-June, and Benson met with the school's president and athletic director on the UT Arlington campus June 29. Following a unanimous vote, which included presidents of both current and future members of the WAC, UT Arlington was extended an official invite on July 5.

Should the University of Texas System board of regents approve the recommendation join the WAC, UT Arlington will join the conference beginningJuly 1, 2012, in all sports but football. The agenda document notes that "the WAC is a football bowl subdivision conference where football is important, but UT Arlington's invitation is not conditioned on starting a football program."

The move would give Mavericks of Texas Arlington significantly more prestige and exposure than they were receiving in the Southland Conference, as well as a much larger payday from both television contracts and the NCAA.

For the WAC the move would bring the conference to an even 10 members in non-football sports and will break up the conference geographically to ease travel burdens on schools located at the edges of the sprawling conference. The divisions would likely be broken up between north and south with UT Arlington joining Texas State, UT San Antonio, New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech in a southern or eastern division and Utah State, Denver, Idaho, San Jose State and Seattle comprising a western or northern division.

In his conference call announcing the addition of Seattle University to the WAC in mid-June, Benson said the WAC would continue to search for additional schools to add to the conference and would be especially aggressive about the possibility of adding potential football members. As the conference currently stands, only seven schools play football, a number Benson admitted is less than ideal. Unless UT Arlington plans to add football in the near future they will not help that number, which could mean even more expansion could be coming soon.