"Rarely in its 45-year existence has the nation's most far-flung conference had so much to crow about. Or, more reason to do it up big and well.
Between Boise State's inspiring Fiesta Bowl triumph, Hawai'i quarterback Colt Brennan's record-pulverizing season and San Jose State's turnaround, the WAC has plenty it wants to show off. And,
with 69 media representatives, including a smattering of national media — USA Today, ESPN.com, the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle — and three bowls, it will have an audience, the proportions of which it has rarely been blessed.
It is why, for example, UH has timed its Colt Brennan Heisman Trophy candidacy DVD, "A Colt Following," for release tomorrow. And it is why the conference has come to the Bay Area, ostensibly its biggest media market, instead of the usual hinterland locales of Boise or Reno to state its case.
"We have individuals; we have teams; we have coaches," commissioner Karl Benson said. "It is by far the most we've had to promote in recent years."
All that is missing is having Aretha Franklin out front to sing "R-e-s-p-e-c-t."
The WAC basked in the attention it earned last season and resolved early on to do what it could to keep it coming. In a burst of marketing savvy, the conference office distributed a glossy 50-page offseason guide in the spring to get its word out in preseason magazines. Now comes the WAC Preview, aimed as one last salvo before the preseason polls — a crucial early milepost — come out in three weeks.
The WAC's avowed goal is to place two of its teams, Boise State and UH, in the preseason Top 25 and hope one of them can duplicate the Broncos' lucrative run to the BCS and pick up some major awards along the way.
Both finished in the polls in January — (Boise as high as No. 5 and UH 24th) — but the key for positioning for a Bowl Championship Series berth is to have the boost of being there when the season kicks off. "History has shown us how much of an advantage that can be," Benson said.
For UH, with its Charmin-soft schedule, cracking the polls early is practically a necessity if the Warriors expect to make a run. With Northern Colorado, Louisiana Tech, Nevada-Las Vegas, Charleston Southern, Idaho and Utah State — two Division I-AA schools and four schools with a combined 10-39 record in 2006 — composing the first-half schedule, climbing otherwise figures to be labored.
Likewise the WAC wants to launch the Heisman Trophy campaigns of Brennan and Boise State running back Ian Johnson, getting them in the early conversations so they aren't overshadowed before the competition begins.
Ultimately, of course, it comes down to what UH, Boise State and the rest of the WAC do on the field. But, for once, it would be nice not to be trailing everybody else coming out of the blocks. And that's what this week is all about."
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