Western Athletic Conference

Western Athletic Conference (WAC)
Western Athletic Conference logo
Established	1962
Association	NCAA
Division	Division I FBS
Members	10 (9 beginning July 1, 2013)
Sports fielded	18 (men's: 7; women's: 11)
Region	Western United States West South Central United States
Headquarters	Englewood, Colorado
Commissioner	Jeff Hurd (since 2012)
Website	wacsports.com
Locations
Western Athletic Conference locations

The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, which was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A). In football, the WAC is a non-automatic qualifier member of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) selection system. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States, with member institutions located in California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah, and Washington, plus the "non-western" states of Louisiana and Texas (traditionally associated with the South). Many long-standing members left to form the Mountain West Conference or to join Conference USA. Three additional former members have moved on to the Pacific-12 Conference. Due to various members leaving the WAC, the conference will drop football as a sponsored sport after the 2012-13 season, therefore becoming a non-football conference.

Member schools

Current members

The following institutions are the ten full members of the WAC for the 2012–2013 academic year.

Institution	Nickname	Location	Founded	Type	Enrollment	U.S. News Ranking	Joined	WAC Championships
Denver !University of Denver	Pioneers	Denver, Colorado	1864	Private	11,885	&1000000000000008300000083 (National)	2012	1
University of Idaho	Vandals	Moscow, Idaho	1889	Public	12,312	&10000000000000165000000165 (National)	2005	7
Louisiana Tech University	Bulldogs (men's) Lady Techsters (women's)	Ruston, Louisiana	1894	Public	11,581	&10000000000000199000000199 (National)	2001	29
New Mexico State University	Aggies	Las Cruces, New Mexico	1888	Public	18,497	&10000000000000189000000189 (National)	2005	14
San Jose State University	Spartans	San Jose, California	1857	Public	33,805	&1000000000000030600000038 (Regional: West)	1996	14
Seattle University	Redhawks	Seattle, Washington	1891	Private	7,755	&1000000000000027800000010 (Regional: West)	2012	0
University of Texas at Arlington	Mavericks	Arlington, Texas	1895	Public	33,421	&10000000000000205000000205–270 (National)	2012	0
University of Texas at San Antonio	Roadrunners	San Antonio, Texas	1969	Public	30,968	&10000000000000205000000205–270 (National)	2012	0
Texas State University–San Marcos	Bobcats	San Marcos, Texas	1899	Public	34,113	&1000000000000031400000046 (Regional: West)	2012	0
Utah State University	Aggies	Logan, Utah	1888	Public	28,994	&10000000000000174000000174 (National)	2005	28

Pink denotes schools that will be departing on July 1, 2013. Yellow denotes a school that will be departing on July 1, 2014. Seven current members will leave the WAC on July 1, 2013:

• Louisiana Tech and UTSA will join Conference USA.
• San Jose State and Utah State will join the Mountain West Conference.
• Texas–Arlington and Texas State will join the Sun Belt Conference.
• Denver will join The Summit League.

One current member will leave the WAC on July 1, 2014:

• Idaho will join the Big Sky Conference.

Future members

Six new members will join the WAC on July 1, 2013:

Institution	Nickname	Location	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Current Conference	Joining
California State University, Bakersfield	Roadrunners	Bakersfield, California	1965	Public	8,002	NCAA D-I Independent	2013
Chicago State University	Cougars	Chicago, Illinois	1867	Public	7,131	Great West	2013
Grand Canyon University	Antelopes	Phoenix, Arizona	1949	Private	40,000	PacWest (NCAA Division II)	2013
University of Missouri–Kansas City	Kangaroos	Kansas City, Missouri	1933	Public	14,499	Summit	2013
University of Texas–Pan American	Broncs	Edinburg, Texas	1927	Public	17,048	Great West	2013
Utah Valley University	Wolverines	Orem, Utah	1941	Public	33,395	Great West	2013

Affiliate members

The following eight schools field programs in the WAC for sports not sponsored by their primary conferences.

Institution	Nickname	Location	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Primary Conference	WAC Sport(s)	WAC Championships
Boise State University	Broncos	Boise, Idaho	1932	Public	19,664	Mountain West	Women's gymmastics	3
California State University, Bakersfield	Roadrunners	Bakersfield, California	1970	Public	7,600	NCAA D-I Independent (full WAC member in 2013)	Baseball Women's swimming & diving	0
California State University, Sacramento	Hornets	Sacramento, California	1947	Public	27,972	Big Sky	Baseball Women's gymnastics	3
Dallas Baptist University	Patriots	Dallas, Texas	1898	Private	5,500	Heartland (NCAA Division II)	Baseball	0
University of North Dakota	(none)	Grand Forks, North Dakota	1883	Public	15,250	Big Sky	Baseball Women's swimming & diving	0
Northern Arizona University	Lumberjacks	Flagstaff, Arizona	1899	Public	18,824	Big Sky	Women's swimming & diving	0
University of Northern Colorado	Bears	Greeley, Colorado	1889	Public	10,097	Big Sky	Baseball Women's swimming & diving	0
Southern Utah University	Thunderbirds	Cedar City, Utah	1897	Public	7,509	Big Sky	Women's gymnastics	1

• Dallas Baptist will join the Missouri Valley Conference for baseball as of the 2014 season (2013-14 academic year).
• North Dakota will join the WAC conference for baseball for the 2014 season (2013-14 academic year).

Former members

The WAC has 19 former members.

Institution	Nickname	Location	Joined	Departed	WAC Championships	Current Conference
United States Air Force Academy	Falcons	Colorado Springs, Colorado	1980	1999	7	Mountain West
University of Arizona	Wildcats	Tucson, Arizona	1962	1978	18	Pac-12
Arizona State University	Sun Devils	Tempe, Arizona	1962	1978	29	Pac-12
Boise State University	Broncos	Boise, Idaho	2001	2011	32	Mountain West
Brigham Young University	Cougars	Provo, Utah	1962	1999	193	NCAA D-I FBS Independent (football) WCC (all other sports)
California State University, Fresno	Bulldogs	Fresno, California	1992	2012	75	Mountain West
Colorado State University	Rams	Fort Collins, Colorado	1967	1999	15	Mountain West
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa	Rainbow Warriors Rainbows Warriors Rainbow Wahine	Honolulu, Hawaii	1979	2012	62	Mountain West (football) Big West (all other sports)
University of Nevada, Las Vegas	Rebels	Las Vegas, Nevada	1996	1999	2	Mountain West
University of Nevada, Reno	Wolf Pack	Reno, Nevada	2000	2012	22	Mountain West
University of New Mexico	Lobos	Albuquerque, New Mexico	1962	1999	46	Mountain West
Rice University	Owls	Houston, Texas	1996	2005	29	C-USA
San Diego State University	Aztecs	San Diego, California	1978	1999	20	Mountain West
Southern Methodist University	Mustangs	University Park, Texas	1996	2005	39	C-USA
Texas Christian University	Horned Frogs	Fort Worth, Texas	1996	2001	18	Big 12
University of Texas at El Paso	Miners	El Paso, Texas	1967	2005	58	C-USA
University of Tulsa	Golden Hurricane	Tulsa, Oklahoma	1996	2005	14	C-USA
University of Utah	Utes	Salt Lake City, Utah	1962	1999	68	Pac-12
University of Wyoming	Cowboys	Laramie, Wyoming	1962	1999	24	Mountain West

Membership timeline

Full members Full members (non-football) Other conference Other conference

‡ In football, BYU is currently competing and Idaho will compete as NCAA Division I FBS independent schools.

∗ In football, Hawai'i currently competes in the Mountain West Conference.

History

Formation

The WAC formed out of a series of talks between Brigham Young University athletic director Eddie 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 which were at the time members of the Border, Skyline, and Pacific Coast Conferences. Potential member universities who were represented at the meetings included BYU, 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. The charter members of the WAC were Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. New Mexico State and Utah State applied for charter membership and were turned down; they would eventually become WAC members 43 years later.

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 (CWS) runner-up trophy and ASU winning the CWS in 1965, 1967, and 1969. Colorado State and Texas-El Paso (UTEP), at that time just renamed from Texas Western College, 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, Hawaii. The WAC further expanded by adding Air Force in the summer of 1980. A college football national championship won by Brigham Young in 1984 added to the WAC's reputation as the best of the so-called mid-major conferences. This nine-team line-up 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 was 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 WAC expanded again, adding six schools to its ranks for a total of sixteen. Rice, TCU, and SMU joined the league from the Southwest Conference, which had disbanded. Big West Conference members San Jose State and UNLV were also admitted, as well as Tulsa from the Missouri Valley Conference. Also, two WAC members for men's sports at the time, Air Force and Hawaiʻi, brought their women's sports into the WAC. With the expansion, the WAC was divided into two divisions.

To help in organizing schedules and travel for the farflung league, the members were divided into four quadrants of four teams each, as follows:

Quadrant 1	Quadrant 2	Quadrant 3	Quadrant 4
Hawaiʻi	UNLV	BYU	Tulsa
Fresno State	Air Force	Utah	TCU
San Diego State	Colorado State	New Mexico	SMU
San Jose State	Wyoming	UTEP	Rice

Quadrant one was always part of the Pacific Division, and quadrant four was always part of the Mountain Division. Quadrant two was part of the Pacific Division for 1996 and 1997 before switching to the Mountain Division in 1998, while the reverse was true for quadrant three. The scheduled fourth year of the alignment was abandoned after eight schools left to form the Mountain West Conference.^{[citation needed]}

The division champions in football met from 1996 to 1998 in a championship game at Sam Boyd Stadium (also known as the Silver Bowl) in Henderson, Nevada.

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.^{[citation needed]} Additional concerns centered around finances, as the new league stretched from Hawaiʻi 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, split off and formed the new Mountain West Conference.

A USA Today article sums up why the league broke up. "With Hawaii and the Texas schools separated by about 3,900 miles and four time zones, travel costs were a tremendous burden for WAC teams. The costs, coupled with lagging revenue and a proposed realignment that would have separated rivals such as Colorado State and Air Force, created unrest among the eight defecting schools."

WAC in the 2000s

In 2000, the University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada) of the Big West conference joined as part of its plan to upgrade its athletic program.

TCU left for Conference USA in 2001 (it would later leave C-USA to become the ninth member of the Mountain West in 2005, and joined the Big 12 in 2012).

When the Big West announced that it would drop football after the 2000 season, four of its members (Boise State, Idaho, New Mexico State, and Utah State) wanted to continue their football programs. Boise State was invited to join the WAC and promptly departed the Big West, while New Mexico State and Idaho joined the Sun Belt Conference (NMSU as a full member, Idaho as a "football only" member) and Utah State operated as an independent D-IA program. At the same time, Louisiana Tech (LA Tech) ended its independent D-IA status and also accepted an invitation to join the WAC with Boise State.

In 2005, Conference USA sought new members to replenish its ranks after losing members to the Big East, which had lost members to the ACC. Four WAC schools, former SWC schools Rice and SMU, as well as Tulsa, and UTEP, joined Conference USA. In response, the WAC added Idaho, New Mexico State, and Utah State – all former Big West schools which left the conference in 2000 along with Boise State when that conference dropped football. The three new schools were all land grant universities, bringing the conference total to five (Nevada and Hawaiʻi).

Membership changes and the elimination of football

File:WACLocations3.png

Locations of Western Athletic Conference member institutions for the 2012–13 academic year. Seattle and New Mexico State are the only current members not scheduled to leave the conference by 2014.

Main article: 2010–13 NCAA conference realignment

The decade of the 2010s began with a series of conference realignment moves that would have trickle-down effects throughout Division I football, and profoundly change the membership of the WAC. Boise State decided to move to the Mountain West Conference (MWC) for the 2011-12 season, and to replace departing BYU, the MWC also recruited WAC members Fresno State and Nevada for 2012-13. WAC commissioner Karl Benson courted several schools to replace those leaving, including the University of Montana, which declined, as well as the University of Denver, University of Texas at San Antonio and Texas State University-San Marcos, which all accepted effective 2012-13.

However, the resulting eastward shift of the conference's geographic center led the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to reduce travel expenses by joining the California-based Big West Conference (which does not sponsor football) and becoming a football-only member of the MWC. Further invitations were then issued by the WAC to Seattle University and the University of Texas at Arlington. These changes meant that the WAC would have 10 members for 2012–13, and Benson announced that the WAC planned to add two additional football-playing members to begin play in 2013. A further boost came when Boise State decided to join the Big East in football, and return to the WAC in most other sports, as of the 2013–14 academic year. So by the end of 2011, the WAC seemed to have weathered the latest round of conference changes.

But from this seemingly strong position, early 2012 brought forth a series of moves that called the long-term viability of the conference into question. First Utah State and San Jose State accepted offers to join the MWC. Similar announcements followed, taking UTSA and Louisiana Tech to Conference USA, and Texas State and UT-Arlington to the Sun Belt Conference, all as of 2013-14. Boise State also canceled plans to rejoin the WAC, instead opting to place its non-football sports in the Big West Conference. These changes left the WAC's viability as a Division I football conference in doubt, so the two remaining programs, New Mexico State and Idaho, started planning to compete in future seasons as FBS Independents.

In order to rebuild, as well as forestall further defections, the conference was forced to add two schools -- Utah Valley University, CSU Bakersfield -- were invited in October 2012 to join the WAC in 2013-14 but this did not prevent two more members leaving. Idaho opted to return all of its non-football sports to the Big Sky Conference in 2014-15 while Denver took most of its athletic teams to The Summit League as of the 2013-14 season. The conference again reloaded by adding Grand Canyon University and Chicago State University, and extending an invitation to University of Texas-Pan American, which was accepted by approval of the UT System Board of Regents in mid-December. Then in February 2013 the WAC announced that University of Missouri–Kansas City would join in 2013 as well. These changes would put the membership of the conference in 2014 at eight members, of which only one, New Mexico State, had been a member of the conference just three years before. Due to the aforementioned departure of the majority of its football-playing members, the WAC will drop football as a sport after the 2012-13 season, thereby becoming a non-football conference.

Commissioners

Years	Commissioners
1962–1968	Paul Brechler
1968–1971	Wiles Hallock
1971–1980	Stan Bates
1980–1994	Joseph Kearney
1994–2012	Karl Benson
2012–present	Jeff Hurd

Sports

The Western Athletic Conference currently sponsors championship competition in seven men's and eleven women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Eight schools are currently Associate members in three sports.

Teams in Western Athletic Conference competition

Sport	Men's	Women's
Baseball	10	-
Basketball	10	10
Cross Country	9	8
Football	7 Note 1	-
Golf	8	6
Gymnastics	-	6 Note 2
Soccer	- Note 3	9
Softball	-	8
Swimming & Diving	-	8 Note 4
Tennis Note 5	7	10
Track and Field (Indoor)	6	8
Track and Field (Outdoor)	8	9
Volleyball	-	10

• Note 1 = With the changes in membership, football will not be a sponsored sport after 2012.
• Note 2 = Of the six schools competing in women's gymnastics, three are Associate members, and the three member schools are all departing to other conferences. It seems likely that this competition will move to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) which has four competing women's gymnastics teams.
• Note 3 = Men's soccer will become a sponsored sport; current member Seattle and future members Cal State-Bakersfield, Grand Canyon, and UMKC already compete in men's soccer, and future members Chicago State, Texas-Pan American, and Utah Valley are adding the sport for competition in the 2014 season.
• Note 4 = Of the eight schools competing in women's swimming and diving, four are Associate members; of the full members only New Mexico State is remaining; of the five new members, only two compete in women's swimming and diving. If the Associates remain with the WAC, there will be seven schools to compete, otherwise this sport could move to the MPSF, which currently has eight teams competing.
• Note 5 = Both New Mexico state and Seattle play men's and women's tennis as do three of the five new members; there remains some question of the continuance of these as WAC sponsored sports with only five teams.

Football

File:AmericanFootball current event.svg For the most recent season, see 2012 Western Athletic Conference football season

Team	First Season	All-Time Record	All-Time Win %	Bowl Appearances	Bowl Record	Conference Titles	Stadium	Head Coach
Idaho	1893	443–568–26	.427	2	2–0	9	Kibbie Dome	Paul Petrino
Louisiana Tech	1901	571–428–37	.551	6	2–3–1	25	Joe Aillet Stadium	Skip Holtz
New Mexico State	1893	422–587–31	.405	3	2–0–1	4	Aggie Memorial Stadium	DeWayne Walker
San Jose State	1892	465–462–38	.478	8	5–3	16	Spartan Stadium	Ron Caragher
Texas State	1904	489–410–28	.527	0	0–0	14	Bobcat Stadium	Dennis Franchione
Utah State	1892	505–510–31	.482	6	1–5	11	Romney Stadium	Matt Wells
UTSA	2011	12–10	.545	0	0–0	0	Alamodome	Larry Coker

WAC champions

Main article: List of Western Athletic Conference football champions

Bowl games

The lone WAC bowl game tie-in for the 2012–13 postseason was the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

Pick	Name	Location	Opposing Conference	Opposing Pick
1	Famous Idaho Potato Bowl	Boise, Idaho	MAC	3

Bowl Championship Series

The WAC champion received an automatic berth in one of the five BCS bowl games if they were the highest ranked non-automatic qualifying conference champion and either of the following:

• Ranked in the top 12 of the BCS Rankings.
• Ranked in the top 16 of the BCS Rankings and its ranking was higher than that of an automatic qualifying conference champion.

By qualifying under the first criterion above, the 2006 Boise State football team landed a berth in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, and the 2007 Hawaiʻi football team received a bid to play in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. In 2009 the Mountain West champion TCU received the automatic BCS bid by finishing higher than Boise State in the final BCS rankings; however, the Broncos received an at-large BCS bid to the 2010 Fiesta Bowl. In three BCS bowl games, the WAC boasted a record of two wins and one loss. In addition to those three teams that played in BCS bowls, four other WAC teams qualified for a BCS berth but were not selected for a bid, including TCU in 2000 and Boise State in 2004, 2008, and 2010.

Rivalries

Football rivalries involving WAC teams included:

Teams		Rivalry Name	Trophy	Meetings	Record	Series Leader	Current Streak
Idaho	Boise State	–	Governor's Trophy	40	17–22–1	Boise State	Boise State won 12
Idaho	Montana	–	Little Brown Stein	84	55–27–2	Idaho	Montana won 4
Idaho	Washington State	Battle of the Palouse	–	91	18–70–3	Washington State	Washington State won 7
Louisiana Tech	Fresno State	Battle for the Bone	–	11	4–7	Fresno State	Louisiana Tech won 1
Louisiana Tech	Southern Miss	Rivalry in Dixie	–	44	13–31	Southern Miss	Southern Miss won 3
New Mexico State	New Mexico	Rio Grande Rivalry	Maloof Trophy	102	31–66–5	New Mexico	New Mexico won 1
New Mexico State	UTEP	The Battle of I-10	Silver Spade, Brass Spittoon	88	35–51–2	UTEP	UTEP won 2
San Jose State	Fresno State	Valley Rivalry	–	76	34–39–3	Fresno State	San Jose State won 1
San Jose State	Stanford	Bill Walsh Legacy Game	–	64	14–49–1	Stanford	Stanford won 3
Utah State	BYU	–	Old Wagon Wheel	80	34–44–3	BYU	BYU won 1
Utah State	Utah	Battle of the Brothers	–	109	28–77–4	Utah	Utah State won 1

Men's basketball

Team	First Season	All-Time Record	All-Time Win %	NCAA Tournament Appearances	NCAA Tournament Record	Arena	Head Coach
Denver	1904	1168–1206	.492	0	0–0	Magness Arena	Joe Scott
Idaho	1906	1222–1368	.472	4	1–4	Cowan Spectrum	Don Verlin
Louisiana Tech	1926	1171–921	.560	5	4–5	Thomas Assembly Center	Michael White
New Mexico State	1905	1329–1018–2	.566	18	10–20	Pan American Center	Marvin Menzies
San Jose State	1910	1102–1242	.470	3	0–3	Event Center Arena	George Nessman
Seattle	1946	978–874	.528	11	10–13	KeyArena	Cameron Dollar
Texas–Arlington	1960	585–832	.413	1	0–1	College Park Center	Scott Cross
Texas State	1921	1191–1029	.536	2	0–2	Strahan Coliseum	Doug Davalos
Utah State	1904	1443–998	.591	20	6–22	Smith Spectrum	Stew Morrill
UTSA	1982	456–408	.528	4	1–4	Convocation Center	Brooks Thompson

WAC tournament

Main article: WAC Men's Basketball Tournament

Rivalries

Men's basketball rivalries involving WAC teams include:

Teams		Meetings	Record	Series Leader	Current Streak
Idaho	Boise State	85	35–50	Boise State	Boise State Won 2
New Mexico State	New Mexico	208	95–113	New Mexico	New Mexico Won 1
New Mexico State	UTEP	200	102–98	New Mexico State	UTEP Won 1
Texas–Arlington	UTSA	64	37–27	UTSA	UTSA Won 1
Texas–Arlington	Texas State	55	30–25	Texas State	UTA Won 2
UTSA	Texas State	53	31–22	UTSA	Texas State Won 1
Utah State	BYU	227	91–136	BYU	Utah State Won 1
Utah State	Utah	223	93–130	Utah	Utah State Won 1

Awards

Main article: Western Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year

Women's basketball

Team	First Season	All-Time Record	All-Time Win %	NCAA Tournament Appearances	NCAA Tournament Record	Arena	Head Coach
Denver	1974	481–368	.567	1	0–1	Magness Arena	Kerry Cremeans
Idaho	1975	503–511	.496	1	0–1	Cowan Spectrum	Jon Newlee
Louisiana Tech	1975	1000–212	.825	27	65–25	Thomas Assembly Center	Teresa Weatherspoon
New Mexico State	1983	437–406	.518	2	0–2	Pan American Center	Mark Trakh
San Jose State	1975	328–662	.331	0	0–0	Event Center Arena	Tim La Kose
Seattle	1978	–	.	0	0–0	Connolly Center	Joan Bonvicini
Texas–Arlington	1973	554–550	.502	2	0–2	College Park Center	Samantha Morrow
Texas State	1983	401–408	.496	2	0–2	Strahan Coliseum	Zenarae Antoine
Utah State	1983	105–263	.285	0	0–0	Smith Spectrum	Jerry Finkbeiner
UTSA	1982	429–414	.509	2	0–2	Convocation Center	Rae Rippetoe-Blair

WAC tournament

Main article: WAC Women's Basketball Tournament

Rivalries

Women's basketball rivalries involving WAC teams include:

Teams		Meetings	Record	Series Leader	Current Streak
Louisiana Tech	Fresno State	26	17–9	Louisiana Tech	Fresno State Won 1
Louisiana Tech	LSU	26	14–12	Louisiana Tech	LSU Won 5
Louisiana Tech	Tennessee	41	17–24	Tennessee	Tennessee Won 9
Louisiana Tech	Western Kentucky	39	26–13	Louisiana Tech	Louisiana Tech Won 2
Texas–Arlington	UTSA	54	30–24	UTA	UTA Won 2
Texas–Arlington	Texas State	57	26–31	Texas State	UTA Won 1
UTSA	Texas State	39	10–29	UTSA	Texas State Won 1

Baseball

The WAC has claimed seven NCAA baseball national championships. The most recent WAC national champion is the 2008 Fresno State Bulldogs baseball team.

WAC tournament

Main article: Western Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament

Championships

Current WAC champions

Fall 2011

Sport	School
Football	Louisiana Tech
Soccer (W)	Utah State
Volleyball (W)	Hawaiʻi
Cross Country (M)	Utah State
Cross Country (W)	Idaho

Winter 2012

Sport	School
Basketball (M)	Nevada New Mexico State
Basketball (W)	Fresno State
Indoor Track & Field (M)	Idaho
Indoor Track & Field (W)	Utah State
Swimming & Diving (W)	San Jose State
Gymnastics (W)	Denver San Jose State

Spring 2011

Sport	School
Baseball	Fresno State Nevada New Mexico State Sacramento State
Softball	BYU Hawaii
Outdoor Track & Field (M)	Idaho
Outdoor Track & Field (W)	Utah State
Golf (M)	San Jose State
Golf (W)	San Jose State
Tennis (M)	Fresno State
Tennis (W)	Hawaii

National championships

The following teams have won NCAA national championships while being a member of the WAC:

• Arizona – baseball (1976)
• Arizona State – baseball (1965, 1967, 1969, 1977)
• BYU – men's track & field (shared the national title in 1970)
• BYU – men's golf (1981)
• BYU – women's cross country (1997)
• Fresno State – softball (1998)
• Fresno State – baseball (2008)
• Rice – baseball (2003)
• UTEP – NCAA Division I Men's Cross Country (1969, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981)
• UTEP – NCAA Division I Men's Indoor Track and Field (1974,1975,1976,1978,1980,1981,1982)
• UTEP – NCAA Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field (1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982)
• UNLV – men's golf (1998)

The WAC has also produced one AP national champion in football:

• BYU (1984)

The following teams won AIAW (and forerunner DGWS) women's national championships while their universities were members of the WAC:

• Arizona State (13) – swimming (6), badminton (4), softball (2), golf (1)
• Utah (3) – cross country (Div. II), gymnastics, skiing
• UTEP (1) – indoor track and field

The following current WAC teams have won NCAA national championships:

• Denver
  • Ice Hockey (1958, 1960, 1961, 1968, 1969, 2004, 2005)
  • Skiing (1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• Louisiana Tech – Women's basketball (1981, 1982, 1988)
• Idaho – Boxing (1940, 1941, 1950)
• San Jose State
  • Boxing (1958, 1959, 1960)
  • Men's cross country (1962, 1963)
  • Men's golf (1948)
  • Women's golf (1987, 1989, 1992)
  • Men's outdoor track and field (1969)

Facilities

School	Football stadium	Capacity	Basketball arena	Capacity	Baseball park	Capacity
Cal State Bakersfield	Non-football school		Icardo Center	3,800	Hardt Field*	900
Chicago State	Non-football school		Jones Convocation Center	7,000	New Baseball Stadium	N/A
Dallas Baptist	Baseball-only member				Patriot Field*	1,500
Denver	Non-football school		Magness Arena	7,200	Non-baseball school
Grand Canyon	Non-football school		GCU Arena	5,000	Brazell Stadium	1,500
Idaho	Kibbie Dome	16,000	Cowan Spectrum	7,000	Non-baseball school
Louisiana Tech	Joe Aillet Stadium	30,600	Thomas Assembly Center	8,098	J. C. Love Field	3,000
New Mexico State	Aggie Memorial Stadium	30,343	Pan American Center	13,071	Presley Askew Field	750
Sacramento State	Baseball-only member				John Smith Field*	1,200
San Jose State	Spartan Stadium	30,578	Event Center Arena	5,000	San Jose Municipal Stadium	5,200
Seattle	Non-football school		KeyArena	17,072	Bannerwood Park	N/A
Texas–Arlington	Non-football school		College Park Center	6,500	Clay Gould Ballpark	1,600
Texas–Pan American	Non-football school		UTPA Fieldhouse	4,000	Edinburg Stadium	4,000
Texas State	Bobcat Stadium	30,000	Strahan Coliseum	7,200	Bobcat Baseball Stadium	2,000
Utah State	Romney Stadium	25,500	Smith Spectrum	10,270	Non-baseball school
Utah Valley	Non-football school		UCCU Center	8,500	Brent Brown Ballpark	5,000
UMKC	Non-football school		Swinney Recreation Center	2,000	Non-baseball school
UTSA	Alamodome	65,000	Convocation Center	5,100	Roadrunner Field	800

Note: Future members highlighted in gray. Members leaving highlighted in pink.

Awards

Commissioner's Cup

The WAC awards its Commissioner's Cup to the school that performs the best in each of the conference's 19 men's and women's championships.

Joe Kearney Award

Named in honor of former WAC commissioner Dr. Joseph Kearney, the awards are given annually to the top male and female WAC athlete. The various WAC member institutions Athletics Directors select the male award winner, while the WAC member instituitions Senior Women's Administrators choose the female honoree.

Stan Bates Award

The award is named in honor of former WAC Commissioner Stan Bates and honors the WAC's top male and female scholar-athletes, recognizing the recipients’ athletic and academic accomplishments. In addition, the awards carry a $2,000 postgraduate scholarship.

Media

WAC Sports Network

File:WACsportsnet.jpg

In 2010, the WAC initiated the WAC Sports Network to increase television exposure throughout the conference's media markets. Football and basketball games were produced and distributed throughout the year. The network lasted two seasons and has ceased to operate, but it could be brought back if Learfield Sports, which operated the network, gains additional broadcast rights among new WAC teams.

WAC.tv

WAC.tv is a subscription-based provider of live and on-demand online streaming video of WAC events.

External links

• Official website