Hawaii will become a full member of the Mountain West Conference ahead of the 2026-27 academic year, leaving the Big West behind.Craig Angelos, athletic director at Hawaii, confirmed the move to Spectrum News Hawaii.Hawaii currently is a football-only member of the Mountain West but will move most of its non-football sports, as well.Part of the selling point for Hawaii, per the report, is that the Mountain West agreed that the school will not have to pay travel subsidies to opponents. Hawaii currently helps conference schools with travel costs to the island.Hawaii also won’t be required to pay subsidies for sports including baseball, softball, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball, as it does to the Big West, per the report.”That’s a big win for us to finally get out from underneath paying travel subsidies for our conference competition to come out play us,” Angelos said.The Mountain West will cover the $750,000 exit fee from the Big West, Spectrum News reported.Angelos said the Big West was willing to consider eliminating the subsidies, but Hawaii decided to give its football program solid footing in the Mountain West, which now can remain as an FBS conference with eight full members, per Spectrum News.