Houston Chronicle feature on the WAC

About BSU beating Oklahoma 43-32 in the Fiesta Bowl, ESPN analyst (and former Notre Dame head coach) Bob Davie said:
"That was huge, man. It was huge. Everybody, particularly defensively, respects Oklahoma. Oklahoma is always going to play great defense and for Boise to score that many points on them, that got everybody's attention in the nation." (HC)

About how no BCS team wants to play UH, Davie said:
"Nobody wants to play Hawaii right now. Having to play Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl, Georgia doesn't want that one. I promise you. And that's particularly true after what Boise did last year to Oklahoma. That's got everybody's attention right now." (HC)

About how the WAC has passed the Mountain West now, ever since Urban Meyer left Utah, Davie said:
"All of a sudden the Mountain West has kind of been forgotten a little bit. A couple years ago the Mountain West was really hot when Urban (Meyer) was at Utah. Now, all of a sudden it's the WAC. It's kind of gone in a cycle." (HC)

About how the WAC is now the 2nd-most recognized conference in the West, behind only the Pac-10, Karl Benson said:
"All this has allowed the WAC to re-establish itself as the second-most recognized conference in the West behind the Pac-10. Historically, the WAC was always in the market behind the Pac-10. There wasn't a Mountain West in the '80s or the '90s. But with the breakup of the WAC and the creation of the Mountain West, the WAC sort of slipped below. But now what we've been able to do is re-establish the WAC as a credible conference, as a recognized conference. We're not trying to compare which conference is the best, the WAC or the Mountain West, but the fact Boise State and now Hawaii has allowed the WAC to resurface and to take its place in the West is very significant." (HC)

HC Note: "The WAC also has distanced itself from other mid-major conferences such as the Mid-American Conference, Conference USA and the Sun Belt Conference. In a year of upsets, all of the non-BCS Division I-A conferences recorded wins over the six BCS league schools. But when the regular season ended, the WAC was the only one with two teams — Hawaii and Boise State — in the Top 25; the Warriors stood as the lone undefeated team out of 119 Division I-A schools.The WAC had four bowl invitations, but it will be the BCS game pitting Hawaii against Georgia upon which the WAC will be judged."

About how the WAC needs UH to beat Georgia to get a future WAC champ a shot at the BCS Championship, Davie said:
"Fans will always associate Boise with beating Oklahoma. But as far as the WAC, they need to do that back-to-back years to associate the WAC with winning those kind of games." (HC)

About the WAC getting an automatic BCS spot someday, Benson said:
"The criteria for an automatic berth are pretty difficult. It would take us to continue on this pace two or three more years in a row to finish with top 10 teams. Certainly we're not going to rule it out." (HC)