SALT LAKE CITY — The Western Athletic Conference announced University of Texas-Arlington will become the league's 10th member effective July 1, 2012.
UT-Arlington will join with new members UT-San Antonio, Texas State, Seattle and Denver to replace departing members Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii. Remaining members Utah State, Idaho, San Jose State, New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech will comprise the rest of the conference.
The addition of UT-Arlington will bring the conference to an even 10 basketball playing members and set up a natural travel partner system that will decrease travel budgets. WAC Commissioner Karl Benson said during a conference call with the media that he believes the travel partner system will increase the likelihood for teams to win on the road and increase their RPI and overall basketball profile. The travel partners for the 2012 season will match Louisiana Tech with UT-Arlington, Texas State with UT-San Antonio, Idaho with Seattle, New Mexico State with Denver and San Jose State with Utah State.
Three of those partnerships will allow a team to take a single flight in to their first game, and bus to their second game with New Mexico State and Denver, and Utah State and San Jose State to connect with a short direct flight.
Benson also said the conference will rededicate itself to men's basketball and get back to becoming the multiple-bid league that it was in the early 2000s. Sending multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament in basketball, and winning games in the NCAA Tournament would open revenue streams the conference has not seen in recent years. This will help replace the BCS football money the conference got accustomed to seeing thanks to the now departed Boise State.
The move will also give the WAC a foothold in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, something they have lacked since the departure of SMU from the conference in 2005. Dallas/Fort Worth is the fourth biggest media market and will give the WAC a team in four of the top 20 markets along with Denver, Seattle and the San Francisco/Bay Area markets.
The addition of UT-Arlington does not give the WAC a football playing school, leaving the conference at seven members. According to Benson the Mavericks will investigate the possibility of adding a football team in the near future, but the invite was not dependent on such a move.
Benson reiterated that his ideal WAC setup would be nine football playing schools and 12 basketball playing schools and is dedicated to find two football schools somewhere within the WAC footprint, which now stretches from Louisiana to Washington, within the next year. Such a move would likely not take effect until the 2013-2014 season.