Something uttered in Las Vegas Bowl telecast

[MisterPurple]

In the 4th quarter of the Las Vegas Bowl, one of the broadcasters (I don't know who they were, was switching back and forth between the game and another channel) commented how this is one of the bowl games some people are paying attention to because it pitted a BCS school against a non-BCS school. I heard it come up more than once, originally as something specific like, "Wyoming really wants to win this game against a PAC-10 team." But later in a more generalized statement, they said something to the effect of how non-BCS teams would like nothing better than to beat the BCS teams. He then went on to give examples of non-BCS conferences: "Mountain West, Mid-American, Conference USA."

Note the period at the end of the last sentence.

NO mention of the WAC (or the Sun Belt, for that matter).

In the grand scope of things, this is not that big a deal.

But at the same time, it does give a peek into how the WAC is perceived vs. other conferences. Is it a so-called East Coast bias? Is it a lack of appreciation for the WAC? A lack of exposure?

Yes, the commentator might have just had the WAC slip his mind. But if you are that strong a presence, you don't get forgotten.

I don't mean to sound overly critical about something so small. But sometimes I wonder if the WAC does enough to promote its product. In the end, the commish (Karl Benson) is responsible for that.

We, as UH fans, would have a hard time being objective to such matters. Does Benson (and the WAC office as a whole) make the most of the opportunities given the conference?

Benson serves on the NCAA men's basketball committee. In recent years, has the conference been adequately represented in (men's) March Madness?

[warriorfan808]

For football, I gotta say that the WAC is head and shoulders above the MWC and CUSA. In fact, CUSA will be watered down next year and will be featuring our usual bottom feeder Texas schools. Other than Utep, I could care less about the others leaving. The top of the WAC can compete with anyone.

For basketball, many people don't consider us midmajor. In fact, we're not even listed in the midmajor top 10 for basketball. At the same time, we're participating in bracket buster games, so who knows.

As far as exposing the WAC, Benson is doing a horrible job. Just look at our contract with ESPN. We put up a product just as good as the MWC and get a fraction of their purse. In fact, the greedy MWC actually left ESPN hanging and went with a new network. Did the left over money from the lost contract sway the WAC's way? Hell no. ESPN will give us what they want and we are forced to like it.

[Scott]

even after the success we had over the past few years that the WAC had in athletices, and still no respoect! How can we, (sports fans) help our cause and get the attention of the nation? Any ideas?

[Guest]

Thanks for the response, guys. I, for one, wondered if I was barking up a tree without a cat. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one that feels the conference is under-appreciated and under-represented.

Unfortunately, I gotta run off to work. I'll post some other thoughts when I have more time.

[MisterPurple]

Oops, didn't realize I wasn't logged in. Previous post was by me.