University Star

Western Athletic Conference officials will extend invitations to potential members within the next 30 days, and Texas State will most likely be one of them.

WAC Commissioner Karl Benson said Friday during a national teleconference invitations for the 2012 to 2013 season may be extended to any of the five schools the conference has been in talks with since the summer. WAC officials have been in contact with Texas State, Texas-San Antonio, Montana, Denver and Seattle. All schools, with the exception of Montana, made formal presentations in September to the conference.

“We have a good feel about all five schools and what they have to offer the WAC,” Benson said. “Now, it’s a matter of trying to determine what our final structure will look like.”

Benson hopes to form a conference with a minimum of eight football-playing schools by the 2012 season. Denver and Seattle do not have football programs, and Montana is in the midst of a case study to determine whether it will move to the Football Bowl Subdivision. The need for additional programs comes after the announcement of Fresno State and Nevada’s departure to the Mountain West Conference next season.

WAC Senior Commissioner Jeff Hurd said the announcement of additions — with the inclusion of Texas State — could come as early as this week and as late as the end of the month, depending on the expansion committee’s recommendations.

“It’s fairly to easy to figure out the schools we’ve been talking to, but as of today, there’s nothing definite,” Hurd said. “I think it’s logical if invitations are extended, the schools involved are going to be the two Texas schools and the two non-football schools and Montana.”

Hurd said the expansion committee, which is comprised of the six WAC schools’ athletic directors, will meet again this week to possibly present a recommendation of which schools to invite to the board of directors.