Looking for less travel, more television exposure, better rivalries and more time in the classroom, the University of Denver found its fit and Thursday officially became part of the Western Athletic Conference.
DU, which will start play in the WAC for the 2012-13 season, becomes the first school in that conference’s history to join as a nonfootball member. And the league finally gets a team near its Greenwood Village-based headquarters.
“Does University of Denver basketball have a chance to be Gonzaga-like? Absolutely,” WAC commissioner Karl Benson said at the announcement ceremony in Magness Arena. “The potential, I think, is DU’s strength.”
The Denver men’s and women’s basketball teams and eight other teams will end 13 years of membership in the southeastern-based Sun Belt Conference when they begin play in the rebuilt WAC.
“The move is a wonderful opportunity for our university, and in looking at it, Denver belongs in the WAC,” DU athletic director Peg Bradley-Doppes said. “The missed class time, the cost of travel, the wear and tear on our student-athletes and coaches, have been significant (with the Sun Belt). With the WAC we will save money with travel — even with Hawaii in it. It’s a win-win for us.
“And we’re going to a BCS conference that has a magnificent ESPN contract through 2017 with 300 regular-season appearances. That can only help brand our university.”
By the time DU plays in the conference, the WAC will include Utah State, New Mexico State, Hawaii, Idaho, San Jose State and Louisiana Tech. In addition to DU, Texas-San Antonio and Texas State will join the conference in 2012. Current members Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada are leaving in the next two years to join the Mountain West Conference.
The WAC is considering extending a membership invitation to the University of Seattle, another nonfootball school.
“To be in the WAC, in the Rocky Mountain region, is going to do wonders for the school, it’s going to do wonders for our program — scheduling-wise, recruiting-wide, it’s a big lift to our program,” DU men’s basketball coach Joe Scott said.
“We’re going to be (mostly) playing games within our own time zone. We don’t play any games right now in our own time zone. . . . Over the long course of a season, those things are critical to our players.”
Benson lives in Highlands Ranch and has served as WAC commissioner since 1994. In 1998, he interviewed for the AD job at DU that eventually went to Bradley-Doppes predecessor, Dianne Murphy. Benson said DU’s patience paid off, and the private school with big basketball dreams was in the right place at the right time. The Pioneers are on a year-to-year contract with the Sun Belt and have no exit fee.
“Sometimes change is hard, and sometimes it’s hard to take in a member that didn’t play football,” Benson said. “We had to get past that.”
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
