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The WAC has roughly three years to make a big step up and become a more powerful conference. At the moment, it's not getting the respect the Mountain West is receiving and it's roughly a half-step behind Conference USA and a little bit ahead of the MAC and Sun Belt in the overall pecking order. The top teams, Boise State, Fresno State, and Nevada, have been solid, but now it's up to the rear to make a big improvement to help in the respect department.
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The bottom feeders have made coaching changes, and they've come up with some major coups. Dewayne Walker was this close to being the head coach at UCLA, and now he should work wonders at New Mexico State ... eventually. Gary Andersen is a good coaching prospect who should do a great job at Utah State ... eventually. If these two do a fantastic job, they're upwardly mobile enough to move on in a hurry to bigger programs, but NMSU and Utah State, respectively, can only hope to have enough success to get the top programs to come calling for their coaches.
Idaho still doesn't appear to be making any great strides under Robb Akey and Hawaii should struggle with a tough schedule, but the league should come up with a decent year mainly because the midsection should rise up. The bottom will still be lousy, at least until the new coaches get their programs untracked, but Louisiana Tech is about to hit its stride under Derek Dooley, there's a sense of urgency for Pat Hill at Fresno State, and Nevada is loaded with one of the best running games in America.
Boise State is still Boise State, and San Jose State should be as good as it's been since Dick Tomey took over. But it'll still take a slew of big non-conference wins to change the national perception of the league, and, again, the bottom teams can't be so miserable again. It's hard for Boise State to make a claim to being in a BCS game when it rips through a league with so many gimmes.
So while the league powers want to keep pushing for their top teams to get a sniff from the BCS games, it's still going to take something special to get one of the at-large spots. That doesn't mean that Boise State won't be worthy if it can beat Oregon and roll to yet another double-digit win season, but it'll be harder this year to wake up and get another WAC title.
