No more lurid assertions about the quarterback's mother bellowed loudly from above?

An end to the chanting of suggestions that players perform physically impossible feats?

The last of goading of unfortunate running backs who have just fumbled away a game?

Welcome to the kinder, gentler Western Athletic Conference that is said to await the University of Hawai'i football team on the road this season.

Well, maybe, between the 20-yard lines.

That's the intention, anyway, as the WAC said it is re-instituting a policy prohibiting member schools from locating their student rooting sections behind the visiting team's bench area between the 20s for football.

The rule, re-enacted by conference athletic directors after several years of discussion and a decade-long absence, takes place this fall intent upon, as WAC commissioner Karl Benson puts it, "providing a healthier, more friendly environment."

It is a noble exercise, of course. And, given the nose-to-nose flash-point situation that can erupt when emotions fray, a prudent step.

With fan-player confrontations becoming more visible in every level of sport, not to mention prime seating locations in demand for sale to high rollers, it was an idea that shouldn't be surprising.

It still means students can yell themselves hoarse. Just that now they may get there before they get under the skin of visiting players. It means that spitting distance might now be redefined.

What it doesn't mean is that some other spectator, a non-student, can't be more rowdy. The danger being that one potential antagonist, perhaps an intoxicated one, is merely substituted for another.

WAC officials said no single incident triggered the policy, maintaining the conference had such a rule in place before the 1996 expansion and is simply returning it to the books at an opportune time.

But it does mean change at four schools — Fresno State, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State and San Jose State — that had placed students behind visiting teams with varying degrees of ferocity.

Fresno State, for example, said it will move 1,500 student seats from behind the benches to the south corner of Bulldog Stadium, where 2,500 other student seats have been. After installing padding, it will sell the new openings as premium seats. New Mexico State said it will simply switch benches.

At Aloha Stadium, meanwhile, this hardly affects the Warriors since their student section and Manoa Maniacs are behind the home bench for most games.

Playing on the road in the WAC, the nation's most geographically widespread conference, doubtlessly won't get any easier. But maybe it won't be quite as confrontational off the field, either.

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