The University of Hawaii will not contest the issue of paying travel subsidies to new members who join the Mountain West Conference this year, athletic director Ben Jay said.

"It is what it is," Jay said Tuesday. "It is contractual, it is in the (membership) agreement."

Last year, UH officials had said they might revisit the travel costs issue with the Mountain West in light of new members coming aboard this year.

Under terms of its football-only entry into the conference in 2011, UH agreed to a "travel cost sharing" plan whereby it would reimburse Mountain West teams coming to Hawaii. Teams from California are to receive $150,000 each and those from outside California $175,000 apiece.

UH said it paid $700,000 in the 2012 season because all four opponents, Nevada, New Mexico, Boise State and Nevada-Las Vegas, came from outside California.

UH does not receive a stipend when it travels for Mountain West games.

UH also pays travel subsidies in the Big West Conference, where most of its other teams compete, but it is not obligated to pick up travel expenses for new members that follow it into the conference.

For example, Big West commissioner Dennis Farrell said UH was not going to be required to pay for San Diego State or Boise State when they applied for non-football membership. Subsequently both have chosen to remain in the Mountain West for other reasons.

But UH said it will be required to pay subsidies for new Mountain West members San Jose State and Utah State when they travel here, even though both join the conference July 1, 2013, a year after UH came aboard. Hawaii also will have to pay Boise State and San Diego State, which had announced plans to join the Big East in football but have since backed out of those agreements.

In 2013, San Jose State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State are scheduled to come to Aloha Stadium.