Happy Trails to the WAC

Happy trails to the Western Athletic Conference.  What a fun ride it has been for the conference, but unfortunately, it has come to an abrupt end.  The conference saw itsself form a new identity every time a school or two left.  It even survived the mass exodus of 8 schools in 1999.  Unfortunately the conference has used up all of its 9 lives.  Come the end of the 2011 season, the WAC will no longer exist.

Of the six original charter members, Arizona, Arizona St., and Utah will all be members of the Pac 12 in 2011.  BYU has since claimed its independence, and New Mexico and Wyoming are currently members of the Mountain West.

Throw in the fact that the WAC was also home to the likes of  Nevada, Boise, Fresno St., TCU, and the Air Force Academy, you could say it definitely had nation wide name recognition.  After all, Boise, Utah, TCU, and BYU have become some of the biggest names in college football.

Most people would not realize this, but the WAC is home to 32 NCAA Championships.  The most famous of these being the 1984 BYU Football Championship, the 2003 Rice College World Series Championship, and the 2008 Fresno State College World Series Championship.

Once upon a time ago the WAC was a revolutionary conference.  Before there was a BCS to bust or BCS Busters, the WAC was knocking at the door of the big boys. On a December evening in 1984 BYU knocked down that door, and cemented their place in history, when they won the Holiday Bowl and the AP National Championship!  They were a program revolutionizing the college football game.  BYU was a trend setter.  They set the stage for BCS busting.

How many people love to marvel at guys like Mike Leach?  He is often referred to as the mad scientist and some sort of football genius.  How many people realize his and Hal Mumme's Air Raid offense was the direct bi product of  La Velle Edward's BYU offenses?  Yes thats right, BYU was spreading the field and chucking the ball all over the place in the 80s.  BYU was not the only WAC team spreading the field and chucking the ball all over the place. Utah, and later Fresno would do the same. At one point in time, nobody scored more points than WAC schools! In the meantime the rest of the country was still running out of the wishbone, T-formation, and split back veer.

Where did the WAC go wrong?  How did up start conferences like the Sun-Belt and C-USA outlast the WAC in this money driven day in age? I mean the Sun Belt Conference did not even start playing football until 2001.   Question after question can be asked, but reality is the WAC is all but 6 feet under right now and there are no answers that will change this.

I won't lie that the loss of the WAC is a bit saddening.  My first exposure to college football was predicated around WAC football games.  However, it is time to celebrate the WAC and thank its current and former members for a lot of great memories.

Just as any college student leaving home to start a new life, former WAC schools should remember their roots and where they started.  Its fans can remember those cold November games in La Velle Edwards stadium.  They can remember those 52-48 shootouts across the conference.  Their fans can celebrate the memories and cheer on future successes, knowing that the WAC laid the groundwork for their successes.  WAC fans can now watch the Mountain West Conference and cheer them on, knowing that every one of their current members was once a part of the WAC.  The MWC is not like the WAC of old.  It has been transformed into a hard nosed, physical, and big time conference.  However its success can all be traced back to its roots.  The days good ole Wacky WAC!