Apparently the more things change in the WAC, the more they stay the same.
Six new schools were supposed to shake things up this year. But six weeks into the season it's a sextet of the WAC's Golden Oldies that are still vying for the league crown.Wyoming, Colorado State, San Diego State and Air Force are battling for the Pacific Division playoff spot in the Dec. 7 league title game, while Utah and BYU are the obvious favorites to be perched atop the Mountain when all is said and done.
Not one of the conference newcomers is seriously threatening to contend. The six new teams are a miserable 3-11 combined in WAC battles. Tulsa, TCU and UNLV are all still searching for their first WAC wins.
Fans in their own cities don't even have much interest in watching the new WAC schools play. San Jose State, SMU and Rice are the bottom three teams in the league in home attendance. Only 8,756 fans showed up in San Jose to see the Spartans take on nationally ranked Wyoming last Saturday, for instance.
UNLV was aided by a 40,000-plus crowd of mostly Wisconsin fans that saw the Rebels get ripped by the Badgers last month. Still, UNLV is only 12th in the league with an average attendance of 23,958. Texas Christian, which drew 37,512 in its only home game thus far, is the only newcomer to be above the league average in spectators.
The early results almost beg the question: Is it too late to call the whole WAC expansion thing off?
PLENTY RESTED: Nine WAC teams already have six games under their belts this season - including BYU and Utah, which have identical 5-1 marks.
San Diego State, meanwhile, has played only three times. The 2-1 Aztecs - thanks to a scheduled bye week and a postponement because the Padres were using Jack Murphy Stadium last weekend - haven't been in action since Sept. 21.
SDSU will finally play again tonight when it hosts Hawaii. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but a potential conflict with the Padres (had San Diego won their playoff series against St. Louis) forced the game to be moved up a day. When the Padres lost the series, the Aztecs asked the Rainbows if the game could be moved back to Saturday, but Hawaii refused.
ADD AZTECS: SDSU is becoming thin at running back, but not due to injury. The Aztecs still appear to be in good hands, however.
George Jones, who rushed for a WAC single-season record of 1,842 yards last year, has yet to play a down this season because of an offseason NCAA violation. The Aztecs are awaiting word from the NCAA as to whether Jones will be able to play at all in '96.
Jones' replacement, junior Justin Watson, started the first two games and averaged 100 yards rushing. He was arrested on an outstanding warrant on petty theft charges prior to the third game of the year, however.
True freshman Marty Graham has now taken over as the starter in SDSU's one-back set. Graham rushed for 138 yards on 25 carries against Oklahoma Sept. 21.
CAGEY VETS: When San Jose State and Fresno State meet Saturday, it will be a battle between a pair of coaches that make BYU's 66-year-old LaVell Edwards look like a spring chicken.
"(Spartan coach) John Ralston is older than water," said Fresno's Jim Sweeney.
Sweeney, 69, is four months younger than Ralston, the only member of the College Football Hall of Fame that is actively coaching.
GAME OF THE WEEK: Colorado State will put its 11-game conference road winning streak on the line when it plays at Tulsa Saturday in a divisional cross-over battle. The Golden Hurricane (2-2) is on a roll after consecutive wins over Iowa and Oklahoma. But score another one for the old WAC: CSU 34, Tulsa 25.
SDSU will beat Hawaii, 45-20, in the battle of the WAC's beach-front properties Friday night. In Saturday action expect BYU to crush UNLV (55-10) in a non-league game, Air Force to sink Navy (33-24), Wyoming to lasso Western Michigan (41-18), TCU to edge homestate foe UTEP (24-16) and Fresno State to make a statement against San Jose State (37-20). Utah, New Mexico, Rice and SMU all get the weekend off.