The Western Athletic Conference, hit hard by conference realignment, will drop football after the upcoming 2012 season, reports The Denver Post‘s Irv Moss.

“I think that sometime in late July it became apparent that it was unlikely we could continue with football,” WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd told Moss. “We looked at every option we could think of. With the geography we have in terms of schools, it presents a challenge.”

With schools such as Boise State and Fresno State regularly taking down major conference foes, the WAC was viewed as a capable league. But the conference’s best teams have left over the past few seasons.

Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii and Nevada have already left the WAC, and San Jose State, Utah State, Louisiana Tech and Texas-San Antonio will leave after this year, Moss reported.

The league’s survival as a non-football conference is still in question. Moss reports the WAC needs to add two or three new members to reach the NCAA minimum of seven schools for next season. The search could be easier without football but other variables — such as financial stability — remain.

Industry sources told Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com that Boise State still has not officially withdrawn from the Mountain West Conference in order to join the Big East for football in 2013, and that on July 1 the price to do so increases dramatically.

Moreover, sources say that the Broncos remain in discussions with the MWC about remaining in that league long-term. The complicating factor is that if the football team moves to the Big East, the school may have no home for its remaining teams. There is an agreement in place with the Western Athletic Conference, but that league would have only four other members after the next school year, so Boise State is keeping its options open.

If the Broncos withdraw by June 30, their exit fee would be only about $2.5 million. On July 1, that number would jump to potentially as much as $24 million.