DENVER - The Western Athletic
Conference today announced that invitations for membership have been issued to
and accepted by the University of Denver, the University of Texas at San
Antonio and Texas State University to join the conference effective July 1,
2012.
The announcement was made by the chair
of the WAC Board of Directors and Utah State University President Stan Albrecht
and WAC Commissioner Karl Benson after the Board unanimously voted to issue the
invitations earlier this week.
"The Board of Directors is
extremely dedicated to the long-term stability and growth of the Western
Athletic Conference," said Albrecht. "The University of Texas at San Antonio,
Texas State University and the University of Denver are three very strong
institutions, both in their commitment to building athletic excellence and in
their commitment to academics. We
believe that all three will help us in our quest to make the WAC one of the
outstanding athletic conferences in the country."
"The addition of these three schools
clearly sends a message that the WAC and its member schools are prepared to
move forward to build a 'new' WAC," said Benson. "And
as the WAC prepares to begin its next 50 years as an athletic
conference, I am confident that these
three new members along with the six other WAC schools will continue to compete
at the highest level of the NCAA."
The two Texas schools are currently
members of the Southland Conference and will be making the move up from the
Football Championship Subdivison (FCS) to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS)
in 2012. Denver becomes the first full member
in WAC history to join the league without a football program. The additions mean that for the 2012-13
season, the WAC will consist of nine full-time members, eight of which will
play football.
Benson added that the WAC will continue
to explore the possibility of adding additional members to the league.
Denver, currently a member of the Sun
Belt Conference, is a private institution with an enrollment of 11,644 and is
located nine miles northwest of the WAC's headquarters. The Pioneers sponsor 17 sports and has won 28
national championships in their history.
The men's and women's basketball teams play in the 7,200-seat Magness
Arena, part of the Daniel L. Ritchie Center.
Last year's men's basketball team won 19 games, its third straight year
of improving its number of wins.
UTSA, founded in 1969, has an enrollment
of more than 30,000 students on its three campuses (Main, Downtown and
Institute of Texan Cultures). The University has grown quickly in its
relatively short history and it has plans for $265 million in construction over
the next three years. The Roadrunners have won 48 Southland Conference
Championships since joining the league in 1991-92 and they won the 2007-08
Commissioner's Cup as the top overall athletics department. The newly-created
football program will play its games in the 65,000-seat Alamodome, while the
basketball and volleyball teams play in the Convocation Center (4,080).
Texas State, founded in 1899, has an enrollment of 32,586 and is located in San Marcos, Texas, 50 miles northeast of San Antonio. Texas State sponsors 16 men's and women's sports and plays its home basketball games in Strahan Coliseum (7,200) and its home football games in Bobcat Stadium, which will undergo an expansion project next May to increase its seating capacity to nearly 30,000. The Bobcats have won 33 Southland Conference championships since 2000, including the 2005 and 2008 football titles. They advanced to the 2005 FCS semifinals and appeared in the 2008 FCS playoffs, while their volleyball team has averaged 22 wins and made two NCAA appearances the past three seasons.
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