karl benson

The Western Athletic Conference and Commissioner Karl Benson announced a 10-game ESPN and ESPN2 football schedule for the 2010 season highlighted by a season-opening Thursday night contest on Sept. 2 featuring USC at Hawaii on ESPN. On Friday, Sept. 17, Nevada hosts California. Boise State makes its first home appearance on one of the networks to be announced later when it welcomes Oregon State on Saturday, Sept. 25.  

A No. 12 seed has won a first-round game in 19 of the last 21 NCAA Tournaments. The Western Athletic Conference has two opportunities to add to that number this week. For the first time since 2007 when New Mexico State and Nevada made the tournament, two WAC schools made their way into the Big Dance — both as No. 12 seeds.

They are both high profile matchups   -Karl Benson

 

The 2010 Boise State football schedule was released Monday, and for the moment, features six appearances on the ESPN family of networks. The WAC released it's ESPN television schedule Monday as well, with ten games spread throughout the season. "With three BCS Bowl appearances and two wins over the last four seasons, WAC football has established itself as one of the top brands in the country," said conference Commissioner Karl Benson in a release.  

Karl Benson and the Western Athletic Conference already have, having announced months ago they would be joining the WCC in moving their men's and women's tournaments to The Orleans, beginning next year. Meanwhile, the South Point has been talking to the Big Sky and Big West. Steve Stallworth, the director of South Point's state-of-the-art rodeo arena who negotiated the WCC deal for The Orleans, says the equestrian center could be dusted off to seat 6,000 for basketball. The Big Sky seems content to hold  

But a tournament trip to OKC isn't out of the question. Firmly entrenched in mock brackets, Oklahoma State will learn its NCAA Tournament destination and opponent on Selection Sunday. Where will O-State go?

We don't have a specific place where we want to go play   -Keiton Page

 

The magic ended for Eastern Washington as sixth-seeded Montana State pulled away in the closing minutes to defeat the Eagles in the Big Sky Conference Tournament semifinals at Reese Court on Friday. Mike Vlahovich's unedited game story is below. However, the season isn't over as the Eagles head off to the WNIT, pairings to be announced after the NCAA pairings Monday night.  

Even for those who are not big sports fans, it's hard to deny what the WAC tournament, financially, does for Reno. That's why the city rolled out the red carpet Wednesday as the first day of the tourney kicked off. And we don't know when -- or if -- it's ever coming back.  

The Western Athletic Conference publicly reprimanded Utah State men's basketball coach Stew Morrill for violating the league's sportsmanship code during Saturday's game in Logan, Utah. Following a technical foul by New Mexico State guard Jahmar Young in front of Utah State's bench, Morrill, "directed provocative language towards the player. This clearly violated the WAC's sportsmanship code and any further violations of the code may result in a minimum of a one game suspension," according to the WAC's st

directed provocative language towards the player. This clearly violated the WAC's sportsmanship code and any further violations of the code may result in a minimum of a one game suspension   -Stew Morrill

 

On the eve of leaving for the Western Athletic Conference Tournament, Utah State received some news from the conference office in Denver. Late Tuesday night - 13 minutes before midnight - the WAC sent out a release announcing it had "publicly reprimanded" Aggie head men's basketball coach Stew Morrill. The announcement came from WAC commissioner Karl Benson. 'provocative language' towards the player," the statement from Benson said.  

By all accounts, last year's West Coast Conference tournament at the Orleans Arena exceeded expectations. In the WCC's first year holding its men's and women's basketball championships at a neutral site in Las Vegas, the league broke attendance records with 33,320 total people attending the games. "Our 2009 basketball championship was an overwhelming success, and we expect to improve upon our experience," WCC Commissioner Jamie Zaninovich said.