The past three decades, the University of Hawaii has received wake-up call after wake-up call but keeps pressing the snooze button.

The latest rude awakening came when five schools announced their intended secession from the 12-team Mountain West Conference to join the rebuilding Pac-12 Conference in 2026. Despite needing one more football program to meet the eight-team requirement to qualify as an FBS conference, the Pac-12 — through its screening company — did not even allow UH an application form.

After it was rejected, UH joined the six other remaining Mountain West schools in signing a loyalty pact that binds the seven to the conference — and the yet-to-be-secured television contract — through the end of the 2031-32 academic year. As a football-only member, UH’s cut will be 5% of the more than $130 million the Mountain West will receive from the Pac-12 in poaching and exit fees. That is nearly a fifth of the 24.5% each that UNLV and Air Force will receive in retention pay. Four other Mountain West schools will each receive 11.5%.

That is a slap in the facemask for UH. Unlike their cohorts, the Rainbow Warriors pay travel subsidies of between $150,000 and $175,000 to each MW team that plays in Hawaii. They offer the “Hawaii exemption” that allows any team on their schedule a 13th regular-season game and the opportunity to play on week zero. They also do not have a full share in revenue from the Mountain West’s national television contracts, despite the Warriors’ attractiveness to bettors and nocturnal viewers from the continent in the last-game-of-the-day slot.

The Pac-12 said UH is not as worthy as Utah State, the fifth MW team to jump. At 55,250, Logan’s population is 16th among Utah cities, trailing Millcreek and Herriman, according to the 2022 American Community Survey. Oahu’s population is 953,207.

The Mountain West said UH is 20.4% as valuable as UNLV. In the first 24 years through 2022 of Mountain West membership, UNLV had only two winning football seasons. The Rebels lost 70.5% of their games during that period, including the greatest upset in Division I history when they fell to 45-point underdog Howard in 2017. Brennan Marion, who was Howard’s offensive coordinator at the time, now runs UNLV’s offense.

But the perception of UH should not be surprising. UH has known for decades that it had to invest more in its athletic programs or risk a devalued product.

When the Warriors went 11-2 in 1992, including a victory over Illinois in the Holiday Bowl, it spurred other WAC schools, such as Utah, Colorado State and New Mexico, to pour more money in their programs. UH stayed put and, a few years later, a Utah official was referring to the Warriors as a “chihuahua” in the dog-eat-dog world of college football.

When eight schools felt the 16-team WAC was too clunky, they met in secrecy in a Denver airport in 1998 to plot their secession to form the Mountain West in 1999. UH was left behind.

During the Mountain West’s Media Days in Las Vegas this summer, commissioner Gloria Nevarez warned that all 12 football members needed to invest in their programs.

“In a healthy league, all boats rise with the tide,” Nevarez told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Everyone is going to be somewhere in the spectrum. … The most important thing is when you have teams at the top compete against teams that are either in a rebuilding stage or maybe not investing as much, that has a negative impact. You don’t want the bottom of your league to negatively impact the top. That creates factions, distrust, and the folks at the top wanting maybe to leave. It’s very important for us to continue to move everyone up the spectrum.”

That proved to be prophetic. Boise State and San Diego State had wandering eyes for a while. Both were set to join the Big East in July 2013 before opting to stay in the Mountain West. When USC and UCLA announced their intent to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten in 2024, San Diego State lobbied to be a replacement. Colorado State built a new stadium and improved facilities with the long-term hope of joining the Big 12. It was no surprise when those three were among the five to jump from the Mountain West to the Pac-12.

UH is still hoping for a replacement for Aloha Stadium, which was shuttered for spectator-attended events in December 2020. After losing its grass practice field, there still are plans — wishes? — to eventually build a performance center and practice fields on the Ching Complex footprint that currently is being used as a temporary facility for the Warriors’ home games. But that only happens after a new Aloha Stadium is built in, maybe, hopefully, 2028.

The Warriors have been fighting the good fight in fundraising while surviving in an ever-changing landscape. But without more resources and investments, the next time there are realignments, UH again will be without options.