New twists in the UH-MWC situation (WAC offers football-only membership to UH)

About how the WAC has offered a football-only membership to UH, Karl Benson said:
"The WAC has informed (UH officials) that if Hawaii wants to be a football-only member of the WAC, that we are ready and willing to accept Hawaii as a football-only member." (HSA)


About how she hasn't heard directly about the WAC's offer (JD confirmed that he had heard from the WAC), UH President M.R.C. Greenwood said:
"I'm certainly not surprised to hear they would be sorry to see us leave the league. I have not heard anything directly myself." (HSA)


HSA Note: "Benson said he was told by the MWC it may be 30 to 45 days as it figures whether Hawaii adds to the TV (MWC) value."


HSA Note: "When the University of Hawaii approached the Mountain West Conference 12 years ago about membership, the promise of $500,000 in travel subsidies wasn't enough to help gain admittance. Which brings up the question of how much UH might have to ante up to close the deal on negotiations under way with the MWC now."


Declining to say what amount of travel subsidy UH will be giving the Big West, Big West commissioners Dennis Farrell said:
"Jim (Donovan) is putting together some numbers for us." (HSA)


HSA Note: "UH currently does not subsidize travel for fellow Western Athletic Conference members, though previously, it has subsidized travel costs in the WAC and Big West. Apparently open to negotiation with the MWC and Big West is whether the subsidies will involve airfare only or might also include hotel and other expenses.

The last time UH subsidized an opponent's football travel, it spent $113,730 to bring College of Charleston here in September for a nonconference game, under terms of the contract. That included $83,475 for airfare, $21,385 for hotel rooms and $8,870 for ground transportation. UH underwrote 45 rooms for three nights and plane fare for 75 members of the travel party. Although Charleston came from the East Coast, the Buccaneers, a Division I-AA team, had a smaller travel squad than a I-A Mountain West team might require. UH spent more than $100,000 on the airfare alone for Southern California in the season opener."


About travel subsidies by UH, Governor-elect Neil Abercrombie said that:
"travel costs are always an issue -- and they need to be addressed. I will follow through with (UH president and athletic director) M.R.C Greenwood and Jim Donovan.  As governor, I will work with them to support a Division I athletic program and the pride that such a program brings not only to the university but to all residents of Hawaii." (HSA)


Offering for the state to subsidize some of UH's travel costs during the election campaign, Abercrombie said back then:
"OK, if we're going to be Division I and the conferences are not necessarily going to welcome us unless we can solve some of the travel questions, well, that's a money question. So if that is what it is, you can always solve a money question. You can always address that." (HSA)


HSA Note: "When a handful of University of Hawaii officials gathered before reporters, TV cameras and microphones Thursday night to announce the expectation of joining the Mountain West Conference, president M.R.C. Greenwood summoned vice president Rockne Freitas to join them. Freitas, standing back in the crowd gathered in the Bachman Hall lobby, initially groaned an "Ah ..." waved his hand in protest and attempted to retreat deeper into the background."


About how Rockne Freitas played a key role in UH being invited to the MWC, UH Board of Regents Chairman Howard Karr said:
"With (UH President) M.R.C. Greenwood and my approval, Rockne played a very important part in reaching out to the MWC and Commissioner (Craig) Thompson." (HSA)


HSA Note: "Or, as one staffer tweeted to a friend when the announcement came: "Rock is the Man!" "


About his role in the MWC invitation, Freitas said:
"It is a team effort, and I like to use the metaphor of a canoe. Every canoe paddler has a distinct role that he or she fulfills to make the canoe go fast. I was, maybe the No. 4 paddler. Clearly, unequivocally, the steersperson (president) sets the pace." (HSA)


HSA Note: "Freitas, who had been chancellor of Hawaii Community College for nearly six years, was named to the just-created position of vice president for student affairs and university and community relations for UH in May. As if that title weren't long enough, he was also tasked to "work on special key projects."

When Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada announced their departures from the WAC this summer, Greenwood, who hadn't had much of a finger in athletics heretofore, came to appreciate the depth of the community's concern over the fate of the athletic program.  What she had initially described as "a Manoa (campus) issue" to a booster had taken on considerably more import. Karr and board secretary Keith Amemiya, former executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, are said to have driven home the urgency of the situation. So much so, apparently, that Greenwood asked Freitas to suggest a course of action in case other efforts weren't fruitful."


About how he is "old friends" with Freitas, UNLV President Neal Smatresk (vice chair of the MWC Board of Directors and vice chancellor for academic affairs at UH between 2004 and 2007) said:
"We had an opportunity to discuss a number of issues involving academics and Native Hawaiian issues and I greatly appreciated his insights. Of course, we would talk sports from time to time." (HSA)


About how he still follows UH, Smatresk said:
"I root for Hawaii as long as they are not playing UNLV." (HSA)


HSA Note: "Smatresk said he also believed UH would be a valuable addition to the conference and took UH's case to MWC members and commissioner Thompson, who league sources said met with both of them in Las Vegas at least once. By that time, the MWC was interested in UH but, due to travel and cost concerns, only as a prospective football member. It was a situation that suited UH, where athletic director Jim Donovan had already been in talks with the Big West about a home for UH's other sports in case the Warriors chose to become an independent."


About Thompson meeting face-to-face with Smatresk and Freitas, someone familiar with his style said:
"Craig likes to meet face-to-face and keep things out of the public eye." (HSA)


HSA Note: "Meanwhile, Greenwood buttonholed some MWC peers. As recently as a week ago at the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities annual meeting in Dallas, she talked to others, including the Wyoming president, who was on a panel she chaired. By that point things had begun to move swiftly, a straw vote had reportedly been taken showing strong support for UH and Thompson scheduled a conference call for Thursday morning. When the UH Regents met on Maui, staffers said Greenwood got a call from Thompson saying he'd been given the go-ahead to conclude negotiations with UH. And some Regents high-fived news they hadn't heretofore been party to. That evening the announcement was made in Bachman Hall and Freitas could no longer hide in the shadows."


http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/sportsnews/20101120_WAC_counters_Mountain_West_offer_with_football-only_option.html

http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/sportsnews/20101120_Officials_crunch_numbers_for_cost_of_travel_subsidies.html

http://www.staradvertiser.com/editorials/20101120_uh_athletics_scores_big.html

http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/sportsnews/20101120_The_man_behind_the_plan.html