Photo Illustration by Matt Weir / The Collegian

The days of playing against the Idahos, the New Mexico States, and the rest of the Western Athletic Conference members on an annual basis is finally over.

University officials announced last Wednesday that Fresno State was leaving the WAC to accept an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference.

“Fresno State was certainly honored to be invited to become a member of the Mountain West Conference,” university president John Welty said.

Soon Fresno State will be seen competing against the likes of Brigham Young, New Mexico, San Diego State and Texas Christian, alongside former WAC rivals Boise State and Nevada.

Welty said that Fresno State hopes to enter the MWC sometime in the next two years, if not earlier.

“The sooner you get there, the better it is,” he said. “I’d like to see us move by Fall 2011 if possible.”

The move to the MWC doesn’t come without penalty, however. Fresno State would be subjected to pay a reported $5 million because of its departure from the WAC. The university has said that it will use non-state funding dollars to help cover the cost of the penalty clause.

WAC commissioner Karl Benson told ESPN that he expects Fresno State to pay the exit fee by Oct. 17. Benson called both Fresno State and Nevada “selfish” for leaving the conference, just five days after all eight WAC schools agreed to the $5 million buyout penalty. The agreement was made to protect the conference from future departures, but Fresno State decided it was still best to leave.

With Fresno State leaving on bad terms, the MWC is welcoming the school with opened arms.

The MWC acknowledged that it would waive the entrance fee, which could save the athletic department a reported $1 million.

“Over a period of time, we will both finance a buyout and the additional cost that we have,” Welty said.

So why did the university choose to accept an invitation to the MWC knowing it was going to be hit by fees?

Welty said that the opportunity to join the MWC was too good to pass up, even if it meant being penalized. He said that by joining the conference now, the advantages to Fresno State would be seen as beneficial in the long run.

“This invitation provides an opportunity for Fresno State to take another step athletically and also another step academically,” Welty said.

Athletically, being a part of the MWC will improve the overall competition of the program. Competition between sports would be at a higher level in the MWC as opposed to the WAC. The conference is stacked from top to bottom. Just last year alone, the MWC had five schools participate in bowl games and four were invited to the NCAA tournament in men’s basketball.

On top of that, the MWC had six schools finish in the Top 100 of the Learfield Sports Directors‘ Cup standings, which is a program that honors the success of each schools athletic programs. In comparison, the WAC only had two universities finish in the Top 100.

“If you look at the overall strength of the conference, [it] provides us greater access for our teams [and] our student-athletes to the NCAA tournament, postseason play and bowl games,” Boeh said. “It really galvanizes our strength of schedule.”

The prospect of generating more revenue while simultaneously cutting costs also played a role in the university’s decision to join the conference. Travel will be less in the MWC than it was in the WAC. The farthest trip the university would have to make for a conference match is to TCU at 1,300 miles as compared to Hawaii where it was more than a 2,500 mile one-way trip.

“If you take a look at some of the travel that’s involved in the Mountain West versus the WAC, there’s some cost-savings there,” Boeh said. “ There is going to be some opportunities for savings.”

The chance to increase revenue is also there. By being a member of the MWC, Fresno State officials said that it can possibly generate more revenue through richer TV contracts, postseason games and increased ticket sales. Last season, the MWC averaged nearly 34,000 fans in football. In contrast, the WAC averaged a little more than 22,000 fans each game.

“Essentially as we enter the Mountain West, we are going to realize additional revenue,” Welty said. “We believe we will also realize additional attendance at our events that will generate revenue.”

The move to the MWC isn’t expected to be completed soon, so Fresno State athletics will be stuck in the WAC until the issues are resolved.

The departure from the WAC ends an 18-year relationship with the conference where it saw Fresno State capture many conference championships in a majority of sports including softball, baseball and women’s basketball.

“The WAC has allowed us to grow [and] has allowed our program to become known nationally,” Welty said.