The Western Athletic Conference might be undergoing a serious change of membership and fighting for its life in many ways, but Karl Benson refuses to go down without a fight.
In fact, the WAC commissioner is determined to see his conference live long into the future even with three schools announcing their intentions to bail out and join the Mountain West Conference.
In a press release Monday, Benson reiterated his position that Fresno State and Nevada — two schools who announced just two weeks ago that they were leaving — are going to have to pay a pretty penny to leave. And they won't be allowed to join the MWC until the 2012-13 season.
"The WAC fully expects to receive the $5 million from both Fresno State and Nevada and will take legal recourse if necessary to obtain the money," Benson said in the press release. "As for the termination date, WAC Bylaws make it very clear that Fresno State and Nevada must remain in the WAC through the 2011-12 season unless the WAC authorizes an 'early out.' Fresno State and Nevada leaving the WAC following the 2010-11 season would cause irreparable financial harm to the remaining WAC members in terms of football scheduling and potential loss of revenue from television and bowl games."
This has been a source of contention between the WAC, Fresno State, Nevada and fans of all schools involved. Fresno State and Nevada sent notice late last week that they intended to leave the WAC and join the MWC after the current school year.
Benson, as expected, isn't willing to let that happen — at all.
"They asked for an early out and we declined to let them leave a year early," Benson told the Deseret News Monday. "If they were to leave a year early it would cause the remaining WAC schools a lot of harm. Our six remaining schools would be in jeopardy of not being able to fill out a 12-game football schedule. It would magnify the challenges and might make it impossible."
At issue is the July 1 deadline for informing the conference of an impending withdrawal from the league. According to the WAC Bylaws, Nevada and Fresno State will be required to be members of the conference next season.
"Any Member may withdraw from the Conference by filing with each of the other Members and with the Commissioner of the Conference, on or before July 1 of any year, an official notice of withdrawal, in which event the withdrawal shall be effective the following June 30," the WAC Bylaws, which were last updated in 2006, state in Section 7. "Any withdrawing Member shall, however, play all approved athletic competitions scheduled with the other Members in accordance with the governing contracts unless such competitions are waived by written consent of the parties affected."
The WAC, Benson said, will not release the two late-departing schools of those obligations.
There has been a degree of confusion among fans of the deadlines for notice to leave the WAC because the WAC Code, which Benson pointed out is superseded by the Bylaws, indicates a Sept. 1 deadline to withdraw.
"The governing document are the WAC bylaws — this bylaw was revised in 2006," Benson said. "The WAC Code was never revised to reflect the change from Sept. 1 to July 1."
Having an extra year as an eight-team conference could give the conference enough time to explore expansion options. Asked if BYU joining the conference was still an option, Benson declined to comment.
"At this point, I really can't speak on that," Benson said.
Rumors abound on the Internet — ranging from the WAC inviting BYU and any number of MWC or Conference USA schools with a fancy new ESPN contract as incentive to a merger or sorts with MWC, WAC and C-USA schools all jumping ship to create an entirely new conference — but Benson said there may be no such developments for months.
For now, Benson indicated, the conference is placing its focus on making sure Fresno State and Nevada are forced to live up to whatever obligations the courts may determine they must.
e-mail: jeborn@desnews.com