The Western Athletic Conference is “forging ahead in its battle for survival with the realization that it will not be a football-playing conference after this season,” according to Irv Moss of the DENVER POST. WAC Commissioner Jeff Hurd yesterday said that the “emphasis has turned to finding enough schools to retain NCAA Division I recognition as a nonfootball league.” Hurd: “I think that sometime in late July it became apparent that it was unlikely we could continue with football." He said that “challenges remain for the WAC to continue, even as a nonfootball conference” as it must “add multiple new members for the 2013-14 school year in order to have the necessary seven for NCAA recognition.” Seven schools -- Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Texas State, Utah State and Texas-San Antonio -- "will compete in the WAC's final football season" (DENVER POST, 8/21). CBSSPORTS.com’s Matt Hinton noted the WAC “becomes the first Division I conference to call it quits in football since the Southwest Conference dissolved in 1995, and the first casualty of the most recent round of conference realignment.” The conference “plans to continue as a non-football league, though there's some considerable doubt about its viability in other sports, too.” Only current member New Mexico State, along with the Univ. of Denver and Seattle Univ., which join the conference next year, are “on board as full-fledged members for all sports” (CBSSPORTS.com, 8/20).
