Take a good look at Sacramento State this week in the three-game baseball series that opens tomorrow night at Les Murakami Stadium.

Get a nodding familiarity with the green and gold because the University of Hawai'i could someday be seeing a lot more of it.

And, not just in baseball, either, but as a sometime-in-the-not-so-distant-future Western Athletic Conference member. Say 2010 or 2012.

For the moment, Sac State is an "affiliate" member, somebody pulled in off the street to fill an empty chair at the WAC table. The Hornets provide the insurance that the WAC will have the requisite membership (6) to maintain an automatic NCAA berth in baseball in case somebody leaves or is sanctioned.

For the Hornets, this is a second go-around, following up on an earlier (1993 to '96) stay. They are also an affiliate in women's gymnastics.

But you get the feeling the Hornets, even in this stepchild limbo, like enough of what they have seen to be imagining a full-fledged future membership.

A joke? Nobody here thought much of Nevada and Boise State less than a decade ago, either. And now look at them. Boise State has won or shared the last four football titles and Nevada, which shared the 2005 football title, has won back-to-back men's basketball championships.

If the Big Sky Conference is the WAC on-deck circle, then look at who's likely warming up there now.

Officially, both Sac State and the WAC say there have been no talks, handshakes or promises. But they hardly need to when you look at the big picture. The WAC is at an awkward number (9) for scheduling. Louisiana Tech is a geographic anomaly as the conference's most far-flung continental member and will someday flee.

Ideally, of course, the WAC would entice Nevada-Las Vegas and San Diego State to return. But that isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

So, the WAC will have to look to up-and-comers that share what the membership calls the conference's "geographic footprint." With Sacramento but a bus ride from Reno, San Jose and Fresno, and a direct flight from Hawai'i, who is better situated? With more solid financial, facility and competitive footing, who knows?

The big step is getting football from Division I-AA to I-A. The Hornets already have what would be the second highest enrollment in the WAC (27,932), a budget ($9 million) in the lower tier and an ambitious building campaign to "change the face and character of Sacramento State."

Its slogan? "Destination 2010."

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