Where Hawaii Ranks 12

The University of Hawaii leaves the Western Athletic Conference on July 1 of this year, joining the Mountain West Conference in football and the Big West Conference in most other sports.

That’s given USA Today a chance to update its rankings of which schools are tops in subsidizing their sports programs in 2006-2011.

Hawaii is nowhere near the top in these categories, but if you flip the list and rank the conference schools by LEAST subsidized, the University of Hawaii’s stature (or lack of it) becomes more evident.

To wit:

Athletic Programs Least Subsidized in the Mountain West Conference

1.       Fresno State (27.8% of programs)

2.       Boise State (28%)

3.       HAWAII (32.6%)

4.       San Diego State (40.1%)

5.       New Mexico (41.2%)

Athletic Programs Least Subsidized in the Big West Conference

1.       HAWAII (32.6%)

2.       San Diego State (40.1%)

3.       Long Beach State (65%)

4.       California State Fullerton (71.4%)

5.       University of California at Davis (77.6%)