The University of Hawaii announced Tuesday that it will join the Mountain West Conference as a full-time member effective July 1, 2026.
Currently, UH is a member of the MWC in football only. Nearly all of its other sports have competed in the Big West Conference since 2012.
“The University of Hawaii is honored to accept full membership in the Mountain West Conference, marking a pivotal moment in our athletic program’s history,” UH President David Lassner said in a press release. “While we are sad to leave so many amazing colleagues and competitors in the Big West, this expanded partnership will build on our strong football relationship and securely position us to thrive with our Mountain West colleagues in this incredibly dynamic landscape of intercollegiate athletics. This move will also help strengthen our overall finances.”
Travel subsidies for conference opponents will be phased out and a $750,000 exit fee for leaving the Big West Conference will be covered by the Mountain West Conference.
The addition of UH as a full-time member gives the conference eight schools, meeting the NCAA minimum requirement to be a Division I conference.
Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Utah State all announced in September they were leaving the conference for the Pac-12 beginning in 2026.
UTEP recently accepted an offer to join the Mountain West, which will include, as of July 2026, Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV and Wyoming along with UH.
“At the end of the day, as we looked at all of our options, we believe the Mountain West Conference is the best place for all of our sports to be,” Hawaii athletic director Craig Angelos said. “One, it brings stability to our program as a full-fledged member of a FBS conference and two, I think it will strengthen our financial picture.”
Hawaii will compete in 15 sports in the Mountain West Conference, which does not sponsor beach volleyball, men’s volleyball, men’s swimming and diving and women’s water polo.
A decision on where those teams will compete has not been made, although the Big West remains a strong possibility.
“I think, overall, it’s the right move for the department, especially for making the travel subsidies go away,” said UH men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade, who has guided the Rainbow Warriors to two NCAA titles and four NCAA final appearances since 2019. “Men’s volleyball gets left in an unclear position of what’s going to happen, but I would hope that we would stay in the Big West.”
Angelos said joining the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in those sports would be a second option. He continues to have, what he believes, a good relationship with Big West commissioner Dan Butterly.
The Big West released a statement Tuesday saying, “Hawaii has been a great member of The Big West family, has a proud history in The Big West that includes 36 conference titles and three national championships, and we look forward to having the Rainbow Warriors and Rainbow Wahine compete for Big West titles in all sports over the next two seasons,” Butterly said. “Discussions regarding Hawaii’s possible affiliate membership in men’s volleyball, beach volleyball, women’s water polo and men’s swimming and diving will begin today, and we will have further comment on that opportunity at the appropriate time.”
Among the options UH has explored since the first four schools announced they were leaving the Mountain West Conference was membership into this new-look Pac-12, Angelos said.
“I know a lot of people thought that might be a good move for us. I know the Pac-12 has that name brand out there,” Angelos said. “We wanted to look at all aspects of it and we did have discussions with their folks. If I had to summarize it, they really liked our late-night window to add to their portfolio, but I think at the end of the day, between the exit fee and the poaching fees that would have to be paid, they didn’t feel the cost benefit was worth doing.”
Angelos said the plan for the next TV rights deal is to merge with the Mountain West package when its contract is up in 2026.
Hawaii’s current TV deal with Spectrum runs through the end of the 2024-25 athletics season, leaving a gap year in which Angelos was unsure what would happen.
The move will provide tougher travel for UH’s non-football sports that will have a home in a conference that includes stops in Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada and California.
“When Craig first mentioned going to the Mountain West, the first thing that crossed most of our minds was the travel. I think the travel got a lot more challenging, but we’re used to doing hard things here,” Rainbow Wahine soccer coach Michele Nagamine said. “I think the Mountain west for women’s soccer is an excellent conference. They have three teams right now in the top 75 for RPI.”
UTEP and Wyoming don’t sponsor baseball, leaving the MWC with potentially only six schools in that sport. It currently has seven teams and plays a four-team, double-elimination tournament at the end of the season to crown its champion.
“The scheduling won’t affect us at all. It’s new cities for me and the players and our staff which is always kind of cool,” Hawaii baseball coach Rich Hill said. “We led the nation in ERA last year and led the Big West Conference the past three years in a row and I’m not sure that is going to hold up given the altitude, but it’s the same for both teams. It’s kind of fun and there’s an aura of excitement around our department and our staff is really excited.”
UH women’s basketball coach Laura Beeman, who has guided the Rainbow Wahine to three straight postseason appearances and two of the last three Big West championships, said her concern was having the necessary sports budget to compete at the Mountain West level.
“To stay where we currently are and going to, supposedly what they say is a better conference based on RPI, I think is doing us a disservice,” Beeman said. “I hope that in the next two years, there is a plan to make sure our operational budgets are where they need to be, the coaching salaries are where they need to be — recruitment and retention is huge in the age of transfer portal and NIL — and so we can’t stay where we are and go to a bigger conference. That doesn’t make sense to me.”
Angelos said he is in favor of adding at least one more football-playing member to get to eight regular season games, but would prefer it be a school in the Pacific time zone.
Current Mid-American Conference schools Northern Illinois and Toledo have received interest from the Mountain West according to multiple reports.
“First and foremost what we probably want to see is to have nine football-playing schools in there so we can have a full eight-game schedule,” Angelos said. “If we can play all of our games closer to Hawaii, that’s going to help us immensely. Hearing (about) schools farther away makes our job a lot more difficult. The travel will cost a lot more and it takes a lot more time … but again we all have our preferences. That would be a disadvantage for us, but being a conference member, you’re a team player.”