WAC

SITE UNDERCONSTRUCTION
The Western Athletic Conference (commonly referred to as the WAC, pronounced "whack") was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently affiliated with the NCAA’s Division I-A. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States, with member institutions located in California, Hawai'i, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
History
Formation
The WAC formed out of a series of talks between Brigham Young University President Edwin Kimball and other university administrators from 1958 to 1961 to form a new athletic conference that would better fit the needs and situations of certain universities then competing in the Border, Skyline and Pacific Coast Conferences. Potential member universities who were represented at the meetings included Brigham Young, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Arizona State and Wyoming. While the three Washington and Oregon schools elected to stay in a revamped Pac-8 Conference that replaced the scandal-plagued PCC, the remaining six schools formed the WAC, forcing the disbandment of the Border and Skyline conferences. New Mexico State and Utah State applied for charter membership and were turned down; they would eventually become WAC members 43 years later.
Charter Members
University of Arizona (withdrew June 30, 1978 to join the Pacific 10 Conference) Arizona State University (withdrew June 30, 1978 to join the Pacific 10 Conference) Brigham Young University (withdrew June 30, 1999 to form the Mountain West Conference) University of New Mexico (withdrew June 30, 1999 to form the Mountain West Conference) University of Utah (withdrew June 30, 1999 to form the Mountain West Conference) University of Wyoming (withdrew June 30, 1999 to form the Mountain West Conference)
Success and First Expansion
The conference proved to be an almost perfect fit for the six schools from both a competitive and financial standpoint. Arizona and Arizona State, in particular, experienced success in baseball with Arizona garnering the 1963 College World Series runner-up trophy and ASU winning the CWS in 1965, 1967, and 1969. UTEP, recently renamed from Texas Western College, and Colorado State joined in 1967 to bring membership up to eight.
With massive growth in the state of Arizona, the balance of WAC play in the 1970s became increasingly skewed in favor of the Arizona schools, who won or tied for all but two WAC football titles from 1969 onward. In the summer of 1978, the two schools left the WAC for the Pac-8, which became the Pac-10, and were replaced in the WAC by San Diego State and, one year later, Hawai?i. The WAC further expanded by adding Air Force in the summer of 1980. A college football national championship won by BYU in 1984 added to the WAC's reputation as the best of the so-called mid-major conferences. The nine-team lineup of the WAC defined the conference for nearly 15 years.
Second Wave of Expansion and Turbulence
Fresno State expanded its athletic program in the early 1990s and were granted membership in 1992 as the nationwide trend against major college programs independent of conferences accelerated. The WAC merged with the High Country Athletic Conference, a parallel organization to the WAC for women's athletics, in 1990 to unify both men's and women's athletics under one administrative structure.
In 1996, the demise of the scandal-plagued Southwest Conference set off a chain reaction that affected conferences nationwide and the WAC was no exception. Rice, TCU and SMU from the disbanded SWC were admitted into the WAC, along with San Jose State and UNLV from the Big West Conference as well as Tulsa from the Missouri Valley Conference to bring WAC membership to sixteen universities in two divisions.
Increasingly, this arrangement was not satisfactory to most of the older, pre-1990 members. Five members in particular (Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah and Wyoming) felt that WAC expansion had compromised the athletic and academic excellence of the membership[1]. Additional concerns centered around finances, as the new league stretched from Hawai'i to Oklahoma and travel costs became a concern. In 1999, those five schools, along with old line WAC schools New Mexico and San Diego State, as well as newcomer UNLV, would split off and form the Mountain West Conference, depriving the WAC of most of its competitive strength and almost all of its history. Only UTEP and Hawai'i would remain from the WAC's "golden age."
The Modern WAC
Since then, WAC membership has been in a state of flux. Nevada joined in its plan to upgrade its athletic program in 2000. TCU left for Conference USA in 2001 (then rejoined eight former WAC opponents as the ninth member of the Mountain West Conference in 2005), while Boise State and Louisiana Tech joined the same year. 2005 saw another large change of membership, with three universities seeking to upgrade their athletic programs — Idaho, New Mexico State and Utah State — replacing four universities: Rice, SMU, Tulsa and UTEP, all of which joined Conference USA.
Today the WAC is a successful, highly competitive athletic conference serving the needs of western universities who fit between national powerhouses and small college athletic programs in their development.

FULL MEMBERS OF THE WAC
Boise State Broncos Fresno State Bulldogs Hawai'i Warriors/Rainbow Wahine Idaho Vandals Louisiana Tech Bulldogs/Lady Techsters Nevada Wolf Pack New Mexico State Aggies San Jose State Spartans Utah State Aggies

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS OF THE WAC
Sacramento State Hornets (baseball/gymnastics) Cal State Fullerton Titans (gymnastics) Cal State Northridge Matadors (indoor/outdoor track and field) Southern Utah Thunderbirds (gymnastics) Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (women's swimming & diving) San Diego Toreros (women's swimming & diving)

The WAC crowns team and individual champions in 19 sports – 8 men’s and 11 women’s.

Men's sports
Baseball Basketball Cross country Football Golf Tennis Indoor track and field Outdoor track and fieldWomen's sports
Basketball Cross country Golf Gymnastics Soccer Softball Swimming and diving Tennis Indoor track and field Outdoor track and field Volleyball

FORMER MEMBERS OF THE WAC
1978 Arizona (1962-78) Arizona State (1962-78)1999 BYU (1962-99) New Mexico (1962-99) Utah (1962-99) Wyoming (1962-99) Colorado State (1967-99) San Diego State (1978-99) Air Force (1980-99) UNLV (1996-99)2001 TCU (1996-2001)2005 UTEP (1967-2005) Rice (1996-2005) SMU (1996-2005) Tulsa (1996-2005) Of the former members: Two (Arizona and Arizona State) are currently members of the Pac-10. Four (Rice, SMU, Tulsa, UTEP) are in Conference USA. The remaining nine make up the current membership of the Mountain West Conference.