Hawai'i to go independent?

[Terry in Crapchester]

Apparently TPTB at Hawai'i are seriously considering football independence. The concerns are the possibility of the WAC imploding if Fresno State and/or Nevada are offered membership in the MWC, Hawai'i's ability to land in a different conference in that event, and to a lesser extent, TPTB would like to negotiate a "last game of the night" TV deal with ESPN for its home games, but can't do so right now since the WAC owns the TV rights to those games. As a fan of another independent, I'd love to see it happen, although I acknowledge that they'd have some problems making it work that we don't face. Fwiw, Hawai'i was an independent prior to joining the WAC in 1978. http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/sp ... e_WAC.html

Thoughts?

[MuchoBulls]

It would be a wise move if the WAC is fearing that Fresno and Nevada may be going elsewhere.

[Killian]

I would love to see it (for obvious reasons) but they should just drop the rest of their sports if they have to go independent. Obviously I'm not up to speed on all the sports that Hawaii has to offer, but I can't imagine them surviving very long without some sort of west coast conference affiliation.

[King Crimson]

seems like it would be tough to schedule games in October and November. if i'm a team playing a conference schedule, it's a pretty big distraction to travel to Hawaii OOC during conference play unless you can lean that trip up against a bye week or something.

[indyfrisco]

No one cares about Hawaii as far as college sports is concerned.

[Killian]

[indyfrisco]

Like ND, they should be in a conference.

No shit. I mean, if LSU were to go independent, who the fuck would you root for when not watching LSU?

[PSUFAN]

No one cares about Hawaii as far as college sports is concerned.

At least...not until the last weekend of the season.

[Terry in Crapchester]

I would love to see it (for obvious reasons) but they should just drop the rest of their sports if they have to go independent. Obviously I'm not up to speed on all the sports that Hawaii has to offer, but I can't imagine them surviving very long without some sort of west coast conference affiliation.

From what I hear, the Big West would be the most likely destination for their basketball team and olympic sports in that event. The WCC is also a possibility, although the WCC is made up entirely of private schools right now.

seems like it would be tough to schedule games in October and November. if i'm a team playing a conference schedule, it's a pretty big distraction to travel to Hawaii OOC during conference play unless you can lean that trip up against a bye week or something.

It would seem to me that the biggest key for Hawai'i is to keep the NCAA scheduling advantage, i.e., a road game at Hawai'i doesn't count against the 12-game limit. With that in place, they're not having any trouble scheduling OOC opponents right now.

Going independent, of course, would mean losing the conference schedule that's currently in place. But I think they could replace part of that with independents. As an independent, they should be able to get both Army and Navy on the schedule in most years, if not all years, particularly given the strong military presence in the State of Hawai'i. I don't think they'll have ND on the schedule every year, but 4 or 6 times a decade certainly would be doable.

That having been said, I think you're right that they may have more trouble scheduling during the meat of the conference season. An extended road trip during the period from mid-October to mid-November (obviously returning to campus for classes) may be the price they have to pay for independence, although it may be possible to mix in the games with the service academies during that portion of the season.

Like ND, they should be in a conference.

Against my better judgment, why? And for that matter, do Army and Navy belong in a football conference as well?