Arizona, Stanford, UCLA. Western basketball has long been dominated by these Pac-10 Conference powerhouses. As a whole, collegiate athletics in the western half of the United States has traditionally been split between the nationally prominent Pac-10 on one elite level and all other western conferences spread out below the Pac-10.
Who are these other conferences? The two right below the Pac-10 in terms of power and national recognition are the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and the Mountain West Conference. Lesser Division I conferences in the west include the Big West, Big Sky and West Coast Conferences.
Most college sports fans readily recognize the WAC as the conference that Utah dominated in the late 1990s. The Mountain West Conference, however, may not be as familiar to most people -- but for good reason. The Mountain West is the newest conference at the NCAA Division I level and has been officially operating for less than nine months.
The formation of the Mountain West actually began in the summer of 1998 when eight teams -- Utah, UNLV, Colorado State, Brigham Young, Air Force, New Mexico, San Diego State and Wyoming -- decided to leave the WAC the next year to form their own conference.
Why would eight schools leave a conference that was unquestionably on the rise in terms of national stature?
The decision -- like most regarding college athletic programs -- was based on financial concerns and football. The WAC was, and still is, spread out perhaps more than any other conference. The 16-member conference had teams located in Hawaii, Oklahoma and about everywhere in between. Traveling costs for schools such as Colorado State and San Diego State, hardly national athletic powerhouses, were likely a large burden on their respective athletic departments. The formation of the Mountain West greatly reduced the length of some road trips for member schools.
In making the decision to part ways, the schools of the WAC and Mountain West largely ignored the effect the split would have on their basketball programs. Because of NCAA rules, and despite protests from each conference, neither the WAC nor the Mountain West has an automatic bid to this year's NCAA tournament.
In the end, this unforeseen side effect will probably not matter, as it appears that each conference will send at least two, and potentially three, teams to the tournament with at-large bids. At this point in the season it appears that Mountain West teams Utah, UNLV and perhaps Brigham Young will earn at large tournament bids. In the WAC, Tulsa, Fresno State and potentially Southern Methodist could all qualify.
While the formation of the Mountain West Conference didn't hurt any of its school's athletic programs, it could have pernicious regional and national effects. In the past, the NCAA has given all 30 Division I conference champions an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, leaving 34 spots open for at-large bids. With the addition of the Mountain West as the 31st conference, the NCAA has decided starting in 2001 to leave one conference champion out of the NCAA tournament, rather than reducing the number of at-large bids to 33.
What unlucky team will be left out? Unfortunately it will be a small team. The 64th and 65th ranked teams in the field will have a "play-in" game in the week leading up to the NCAA tournament, with the winner earning a first round game in the tournament and a chance to knock off a national powerhouse and the loser earning a trip home. In short, this new system will deprive the tournament of a potential "Cinderella" team.
The regional effects of the new conference are already being felt. Next year will be the last year that the Big West Conference plays football because Nevada is leaving to join the WAC and other schools have also decided to leave the Big West. This leaves some football teams, such as Utah State, without a home after the 2000 season, so to speak.
In an attempt to rebuild, the Big West may seek to pull teams such as Cal State-Northridge from the Big Sky, thus creating more problems at the lower levels of Division I. The formation of the Mountain West was surely the expedient choice for member schools, but the shockwaves of the conference realignment will unfortunately be detrimental to some programs.
