The enduring image of Karl Benson will be his practically skipping through the University of Phoenix Stadium press box on Jan. 1, 2007.

Boise State had just shocked Oklahoma, college football and the world. The commissioner of the Broncos’ league was along for the ride. Karl Benson, a former Boise State shortstop, had just seen the gosh-darndest thing in his life. Along with the rest of us.

He was proud that his lowly-but-proud Western Athletic Conference had taken advantage of the BCS rules to – put in terms of the conference’s marketing slogan – Play Up. Yes, the loosening of BCS bowl access rules in 2006 contributed to Boise’s rise. But it took the team’s performance on the field to convince the world that college football wasn’t the exclusive domain of the Big Six conferences.

WAC member Hawaii went to the Sugar Bowl a year later but the new wave punk band that was the WAC slowly broke up over the years. Boise State skipped from the Mountain West to the Big East. Others followed.

The plucky little conference that couldn’t be killed was on its death bed Thursday with the news that Benson had become the new Sun Belt commissioner. On the surface, Benson is trading a job at the 10th-rated conference in FBS to one rated 11th(and last in the division).

In reality, it is the latest shift of conference realignment tectonic plates. The 50-year old WAC that Benson leaves behind be damaged beyond recognition.  It was formed in 1962 in order to grab an NCAA tournament automatic bid – there were only 24 at the time. The Original Six included Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming.  The current seven-team league (in football) could be absorbed like rain into the soil by some combination of Benson’s new conference and the emerging Big Country (Conference USA/Mountain West conglomeration).

It really depends on the intentions of the Big Country. 

Benson, 60, fought the good fight out West with dignity. Now it’s time to keep the Sun Belt alive and kicking. Time after time on the conference call announcing his hiring, Benson was not shy about saying he wanted the 10-member Sun Belt (in football) to grow to 12. At least. It doesn’t take too much to figure out where those two (or more) teams are going to come from.

As mentioned, in 2012 the WAC is down to seven teams, one above the NCAA minimum. The teams that emerged from that conference to gain BCS bowls under Benson’s watch – Boise State and Hawaii – are long gone. Just a guess but look for the Sun Belt to go after WAC member Louisiana Tech – if the Big Country doesn’t get to Ruston first. The New Orleans-based Sun Belt already has members at Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe.

“There are schools in the [Louisiana] footprint that would make sense,” Benson said.   

Other possibilities: Any combination of Appalachian State, Georgia State, Jacksonville State and Liberty. All four are moving up or in the process of moving up to FBS.  

Benson has literally held the WAC together by force of personality. First, reorganizing after half the then-16 team league left in 1999 to form the Mountain West. (He got the news lying down on the couch at home after eye surgery.) Then with the departure of Boise State (Mountain West, then Big East) as well as Fresno, Hawaii, Nevada (Mountain West) Benson hustled within the last year to add Texas State and Texas-San Antonio. The next FBS game those two schools play will be their first.

The pity is if in the end Benson was somehow forced out of the WAC. The conference owes its current existence to him. With the Sun Belt’s Wright Waters stepping down, the lowest-ranked FBS league is about to experience a rebirth. The so-called Group of Five non-BCS conferences (WAC, MAC, Conference USA, Mountain West, Sun Belt) could to shrink to three.

In a way it consolidates Big Six conferences’ power. The apparent end of BCS automatic qualifying conferences in 2014 means that access to the game’s biggest bowls becomes more important for the “non-AQs” that Benson helped make famous.

“I often asked who is the next Boise State?” he said. “With my Sun Belt hat on, why not someone from the Sun Belt?”

 

WAC football membership in 2012

Idaho 
Louisiana Tech
New Mexico State
San Jose State
Texas State
Utah State

Sun Belt football membership in 2012

Arkansas State
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana-Monroe
Middle Tennessee
North Texas
South Alabama
Troy
Western Kentucky

The overflow companion piece to Friday's Weekend Watch List

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Duke's David Cutcliffe is a Bama grad and worked as a grad assistant for Bear Bryant. As a head coach at Ole Miss he has beaten Alabama twice. In his wallet, Cut carries a ticket stub from Nov. 28, 1981, the day Bryant became the then all-time winningest coach with his 315th victory. Cutcliffe's first game as a student assistant came 28 years ago. Alabama beat Duke ... Minus 13 those starters in the opener, North Carolina leads the nation in passing after two weeks (412 yards vs. LSU) ... Baylor is one of three teams that has not allowed a touchdown this season. (Alabama and Arizona are the others) The last time the Bears did not allow a TD in their first two games was 1960 ... Kansas State's Carson Coffman leads the Big 12 in pass efficiency. Dad Paul was an 11-year NFL veteran. Younger brother Cameron, also a quarterback, is a big-time recruit at Raymore-Peculiar (Mo.) High. Sister Camille is a freshman volleyball player at Wyoming. Another brother, Chase, was a standout tight end at Missouri ... Nebraska quarterback sensation Taylor Martinez has back-to-back 100-yard rushing games. The last time a Husker quarterback did that was 2003 ... 

Miami returned a punt and kickoff for a touchdown in the same game last week for the first time in the same game (last week vs. Ohio State). According to Miami sports information no team in the last 15 years has scored on a kickoff and punt return as well as a 50-yard-plus field goal in the same game ... There are as many underclassmen quarterbacks (freshmen and sophomores) in the top 13 in rushing as there are senior running backs (three each) ... Lost in the flurry of I-AA upsets was Liberty. The Flames beat Ball State last week 27-23. That was Liberty's second win over a I-A school in its history, its first in 21 years. The Flames are ranked 14th in I-AA. Each one of the other I-AA teams to beat I-As this season are also ranked ... Not surprisingly, UCLA leads the Pac-10 with seven turnovers. Only New Mexico has more (eight) ... San Diego State (at Missouri) has finished 105th or lower in rushing each of the last three seasons. It is currently 21st. The Aztecs' eight rushing touchdowns matches their 2009 total. San Diego State is 2-0 for the first time since 1994.