After the Western Athletic Conference board of directors meeting in Park City, Utah concludes today, Commissioner Karl Benson will hold a media conference during which he could announce an invitation for the Seattle University Redhawks to the conference, as reported on Sunday by Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times.
Seattle University could get invite to Western Athletic Conference by Tuesday | Seattle Times Newspaper
If invited, Seattle U. would be a non-football-playing member and would join for the 2012-13 academic year. That is also the first year that the Seattle U.'s men's basketball team would be eligible for the NCAA tournament.An invitation, if extended, would likely come on Tuesday and Benson said that "I would expect that it would be immediate acknowledgment" of a decision to accept. Invitations must be extended and accepted by July 1 for schools to join in time for the 2012-13 season.
Although some Seattle fans might have been hoping for an invitation to the West Coast Conference for Seattle U., the reality is that membership in a conference gives the program a better shot at the NCAA tournament with the opportunity to secure an automatic bid through the conference tournament. And, as Condotta notes, with the opportunity to go to the Big Dance, Seattle U becomes a much more attractive destination for recruits.