If the then-16 team Western Athletic Conference had a 400-plus page strategic plan like the one the current membership is putting into play, you wonder if there would have been the shattering breakup of seven years ago.

A lot of what led to the most tumultuous period in the 44-year history of the WAC grew out of the feeling that such a large and disparate membership — stretching from Oklahoma to Hawai'i — was as far apart on goals and finances as it was geographically.

The current nine-team WAC in which the University of Hawai'i finds itself the senior member is even more widespread on the map — reaching from Louisiana to Hawai'i — and no less diverse financially.

That's why, as thorough and painstaking as the Strategic Plan appears, you wish it came with penalties for underachievers or incentives for achievers. Something more than just a gentleman's (and woman's) agreement to make it work.

Few of the 11 Division I-A conferences have such a pronounced financial disparity as the current WAC. A divide where the budgets of the haves are double and, in some cases, nearly triple, those of some of the have-nots. The most recent Department of Education survey for 2004-05 shows Fresno State's revenues at $25.4 million while Idaho's are $9.5 million. And UH is listed at $20.3 million versus $10.4 million for Utah State.

It was the widening gulf that separated the haves and have-nots and the feeling that bottom feeders were dragging down the money-earners that was among the factors cited for the split.

Wisely, the WAC vowed not to repeat the mistakes of its painful past when it voted to add Idaho, New Mexico State and Utah State in 2004, commissioning its first Strategic Plan of such magnitude. Two years in the works and unanimously passed by the WAC Board of Directors this summer, it sets benchmarks for members and the conference as a whole. "Precedent-setting," is what Denise Konan, UH-Manoa Chancellor and chairwoman of the WAC board has termed it.

The question that hovers over the ambitious plan now is: Can the WAC make it work?

The benchmarks, setting minimum levels and graduated goals covering academics, on-field-performance, budgets, gender equity and attendance, look good on paper and set needed targets. But can they be achieved?

Commissioner Karl Benson, Konan and others say that self-interest and peer pressure should see them through.

But you'd feel a lot more confident if there were either penalties or incentives attached. Preferably both. Without either, there is only the pledge of member presidents and chancellors backing the whole process. And, as we've seen over the course of UH's nearly 30-year stay in the WAC, that doesn't always mean much.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.