The new WAC
"We explored membership in conferences at all levels ... and considered at great length the implications of independent status," President Malcolm Gillis said at the time. The Faculty Council had voted overwhelmingly to improve academic standards for athletes, even if the decision meant moving down from Division I-A.
The WAC has competed in men's sports since 1962 and women's athletics since 1990, but with the admission of five new schools (University of Nevada-Las Vegas, University of Tulsa and San Jose State University among them), it will gain new prominence as the largest NCAA Division I-A conference, with 16 members.
Because the WAC is adding five new schools to the conference next year, a few changes to the structure will be made. The new WAC is divided into quadrants to facilitate scheduling (Rice will be grouped with SMU, TCU and Tulsa) and to preserve old rivalries. An early proposal, for example, split the conference in half, separating New Mexico from UTEP, historically one of the schools' biggest rivalries.
Rice will be joining the WAC during the 1995-96 academic year. The WAC was quite successful in 1994, with three teams (Air Force, BYU and Utah) ranking in the top-20 teams nationwide and a 2-1 bowl record. Rice's recent meetings with its future conference rivals (besides SMU and TCU) have been few; the Owls lost to the Air Force in 1992 and beat UNLV this year.
This item appeared in the Features section of the December 1, 1995 issue.
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