Football in the Western Athletic Conference was once a staple in the state of Utah.
It’s expected to be making a return, at the Football Championship Subdivision level.
Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel reported Wednesday that the WAC is expected to make an announcement Jan. 14 that the conference will again sponsor football, with play beginning in 2022 at the FCS level. The initial members of the WAC football league will include two Utah universities — Dixie State and Southern Utah — as well as Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin and Tarleton State, per Thamel.
How the WAC football conference would be formed
Southern Utah has been a member of the Big Sky Conference since 2012, but last month, the school acknowledged it had received an invitation to join the WAC.
Dixie State, along with Tarleton State, joined the WAC in other sports this past summer. The Trailblazers and Texans moved up from Division II to the Division I level and were set to play their first season as FCS independents this past fall until COVID-19 pushed the FCS season to the spring.
Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin — all Texas schools — currently compete in the Southland Conference.
The WAC would need to add at least one additional team to become eligible for NCAA postseason, at least initially. The NCAA requires six postseason eligible members to form an FCS league, and Dixie State and Tarleton State are in their first year of a four-year transitional period to the D-I level, leaving the WAC one institution short as it would currently be constituted once the announcement becomes official.
Thamel reported the league will look to add two more schools in the coming months — with a mix of Division II and other FCS institutions among the possible additions.
A return to the FBS level?
Then here’s a real kicker: Thamel reported the WAC’s long-term plan for football includes returning the league to the Football Bowl Subdivision level within a decade. The WAC played football at the sport’s highest collegiate level from 1962 to 2012, when attrition over the years finally forced the conference to stop sponsoring the sport.
BYU and Utah played in the WAC from its establishment in 1962 until 1998, when they — along with six other WAC members — left and formed the Mountain West Conference. Utah State played in the WAC from 2005 to its final year in 2012.
BYU won 19 conference titles — 13 outright, six shared — and a national championship during its time in the WAC, while Utah won two league championships and Utah State one.
Other Utah schools this would impact
Southern Utah currently competes alongside another Utah institution, Weber State, in the Big Sky Conference. This move would leave the Wildcats as the lone member of the league that has its headquarters in Farmington.
Dixie State had already joined another Utah school, Utah Valley, in the WAC with its move to Division I. The addition of Southern Utah would put three of the state’s seven Division I schools in the same conference. UVU, however, does not sponsor football.