In a brutal week for University of Hawaii football:
>> Four schools gave notice of their intent to leave the Mountain West, of which UH has been a football-only affiliate since 2012.
>> The Rainbow Warriors lost a road game to Sam Houston, an upstart FBS program flush with nouveau argent from lawmakers and boosters.
>> The Board of Regents announced two finalists to succeed retiring school president David Lassner — neither of whom is Brennon Morioka, the dean of the College of Engineering, chair of the Aloha Stadium Authority, ally of state lawmakers, and a friend to people in high places.
All of which makes this the appropriate time for Lassner to play the loyalty card and negotiate a better membership agreement with the Mountain West.
As the Pac-12 was being whittled by departures and seeking replacements, Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez helped steer the crafting of a loyalty contract — with steep secession penalties — to dissuade members from leaving the 25-year-old conference.
With 10 Pac-12 teams, most notably USC and UCLA, beginning new memberships in other power conferences this season, the two left behind — Oregon State and Washington State — needed to refill their 2024 schedules. The MW threw a lifeline. Instead of playing eight league games, each MW team would play seven. A non-conference contest against Oregon State or Washington State would replace the eighth league game.
When negotiations crumbled and it was mutually agreed not to extend the arrangement with OSU and WSU for the 2025 season, MW officials did not display any visible concerns that it would lead to secessions. After all, the loyalty contract with the excessive exit fee — $17 million for a planned leave more than a year in advance — was iron clad. But the metaphorical lesson of rusting Aloha Stadium is metal is not everlasting, particularly in contracts. Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State announced their decisions to join the holdover Pac-12 members in 2026.
The moves actually give a negotiating advantage to UH. For the 2026 football season, the two conferences have commitments from a combined 14 football teams — six in the Pac-12, eight in the Mountain West. A football conference needs at least eight teams to meet FBS eligibility. Whether more Mountain West schools move to the Pac-12 or not, there still needs to be two more schools added to the pool for the leagues to be both FBS eligible.
Unless first-year ACC members California and Stanford both return to the Pac-12 — and that is unlikely to happen before 2026, if at all — two schools need to be added from group of five leagues or from the FCS division. But there is a transition period, up to two years, for an FCS school to move to FBS. The Mountain West needs UH to maintain FBS status. The MW needs the Warriors even more if other schools secede.
Strategically or naively, Lassner — and UH — has been loyal to Nevarez and the Mountain West. Unlike the four secessionists, UH never sought to join the depleted Pac-12. That commitment should matter.
When it comes to conference issues, the school presidents — not the commissioner — make the decisions. Before the home stretch of his year-ending retirement, Lassner needs to take his Mountain West loyalty points and re-negotiate these terms:
> One of the requirements for admission to the Mountain West (from the WAC) in 2012 was UH would pay travel subsidies for league members playing in Hawaii. It was a one-sided deal for UH to pay for another team’s charters while the Warriors traveled on commercial flights through last season. The subsidies need to stop.
> UH needs a fair share of the league’s national television contracts. UH has the best local TV contract, receiving about $3.1 million a year from Spectrum. But because the league allows UH to keep all the revenue from Spectrum, the university only gets a fraction of the $6 million annually per school the Mountain West earns from national TV contracts. It’s like a group receiving an expensive bottle of scotch but you don’t get a shot because you can afford to buy your own bottle. UH deserves a shot.
> And UH should ask for a fair share of the exit fees.
