Barn to the WAC??

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Western Athletic Conference, stung by a number of high-profile defections to other conferences, is moving fast to recruit a BCS school to it's conference line-up.

"We're always looking for ways to improve our conference", said Karl Benson, commissioner of the WAC, "And we owe it to our member institutions to be as aggressive as possible in recruiting new, high-profile members"

That aggressive search has apparently turned towards the SEC.

One of the potential fallouts from the Cam Newton pay-to-play scandal is the possible expulsion of Auburn from SEC. According to sources, the WAC wants to be ready to snatch up the former-BCS power to bolster their conference's quest to be included in the BCS system.

"Adding Auburn would upgrade our conference in a lot of ways," an unidentified source close to the WAC discussions, "We'd be better in football, baseball and swimming right away. Basketball, softball and gymnastics don't add much, but they'd be competitive in some years. It would also give Louisiana Tech a natural conference rival in the south, something they have wanted for a long time."

Travel, said the source, would not be as big a problem as some might think "Southwest flies out of Birmingham to almost all of our other markets"

While the WAC might seem an odd fit initially for Auburn, they might not have much of choice if they are expelled from the SEC. It is highly unlikely that any other BCS conference would take a school expelled under the circumstances that Auburn is facing, and some of the other conferences in the southeast have conflicts. For instance, Auburn's move to the Sunbelt would likely be blocked by Troy, who recruits a lot of the same players as Auburn and is just down the road from the Auburn campus.

The Southern Conference would also be possibility -- Auburn has a history of playing Southern Conference schools such as Samford, Chattanooga and Georiga Southern. However, sources close to that conference say that some key administrators at Auburn are resistant to the idea of moving down to the I-AA level. "I personally think they are living in a dream world," said the Southern Conference source ,"I think in a couple of years they'll realize that coming with us would have made more sense than flying out west every week to play in the WAC."

As for the WAC, it's clear that they are putting on a full-court press. The WAC conference jet has flown into Montgomery three times over the last two weeks, and a rapid transition team has set up a "war room" at the Hampton Inn in Opelika in order to work through all of the issues needed to get Auburn into the conference as early as next August.

"When the SEC hammer drops on them" said one WAC source, "We'll be ready to give them a warm welcome to the second-best non-BCS conference in America."