The Western Athletic Conference formally announced the addition of five member institutions, four of which are in Texas, to the conference at a joint news conference between current and incoming schools at NRG Stadium in Houston.
The WAC officially introduced Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Southern Utah and Stephen F. Austin as its newest members Thursday morning. The development sparks the biggest wave of NCAA conference realignment in nearly a decade and gives the Western Athletic Conference six Texas schools, the most of any Division I conference across America.
“I cannot overstate my level of excitement in making this expansion announcement. The opportunity to bring five quality institutions into the conference, to significantly strengthen the WAC’s national basketball brand and other championship sport profiles, and to bring football back under the WAC umbrella is one that made sense,” WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd said.
“We are excited to say to the student-athletes, coaches, staff, alumni and supporters of Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin and Southern Utah, ‘Welcome to the WAC,’” UTRGV Vice President and Athletic Director Chasse Conque said. “The visions and values of these institutions’ athletic departments align well with our own. This is a significant realignment that creates a strong future for our conference. The WAC and UTRGV won big with today’s announcement, and we are thrilled to be part of such a strong conference with a very bright future.”
The move will bring the WAC to 13 member institutions in total.
Abilene Christian University President Phil Schubert confirmed that the Southland Conference, the current conference for the four incoming Texas schools, has formally requested that ACU, Lamar, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin leave the conference by June 30.
Schubert added that those four schools are set to join the Western Athletic Conference as of July 1 pending an official vote by the WAC’s board of directors to formalize the move.
“The geography was very important and so was the notion that Stephen F. (Austin), Sam Houston (State) and Lamar were also entertaining the idea,” Schubert said. “Once we got together, we said, ‘Let’s consider what our next step is as a group.’ There was a lot of comfort and confidence in that because of the synergy that was created and the efficiencies that would form the nucleus of a Texas-based conference.”
Southern Utah is set to leave the Big Sky Conference to join the WAC in the summer of 2022. Chicago State also announced in a news release that it would voluntarily leave the WAC in the summer of 2022.
In response, the Western Athletic Conference is set to adopt a divisional format for its 13 member schools in the near future: a Southwest Division featuring Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton State and UTRGV, as well as a West Division that will include California Baptist, Dixie State, Grand Canyon University, New Mexico State, Seattle University, Southern Utah and Utah Valley University.
“Stability is key. One of the ways you do that is not just by adding numbers, but you do it by adding (schools) and making sense of your geography, which we were able to do with this move,” Hurd said. “We’re not just a bunch of schools now that are separated by airplane rides.”
“When you’re in divisions and you’re playing regionally, you simply have more interest,” he added. “Schools have the opportunity, not all the time, but many times for their fans to travel and watch them when they’re on the road. That’s critical and your media coverage tends to increase when you have that kind of setup.”
Hurd and UTRGV University President Dr. Guy Bailey also noted that the conference is engaged in active conversations to add a 14th school to the WAC’s Southwest Division ideally by the start of the 2022-23 academic year.
The addition of the four Texas schools adds geographic stability to the WAC, which features schools in three different time zones spread across the United States. Officials at UTRGV and other WAC institutions are confident that this will increase their visibility and ability to recruit regionally in all sports.
“The geography is great. The idea of being able to have a divisional alignment within a fairly large conference is imperative,” Schubert said. “It helps us remain efficient and it helps concentrate our focus within Texas. … It was a major part of the consideration that helped us feel really good about this move.”
The move also comes as the Western Athletic Conference’s current media rights deal with ESPN is set to expire at the end of the year. Hurd and officials at other member institutions added that this will cut travel costs for every member institution and put the conference collectively in a stronger position to negotiate a new media rights deal that will make it one of the most competitive mid-major leagues across the country.
“This move was very timely and not by accident. We’re going to be in a position where we will renegotiate with ESPN based on what we have now or we will go out and seek multimedia partners,” Hurd said. “I’ll be spending quite a bit of time on that area in the next six to nine months.”
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