While it would be nice to add another quality football program, this just makes absolutely NO sense!

Football is the ONLY thing Boise St. would bring to the table. UNLV/SDSU >>>>>> Boise St. in everything else. Sports, academics, media market (which is a huge part), etc. Even if it was possible to kick one of them out to add Boise, it would be a terrible decision and would never happen.

chodilicus wrote:

I think that the easy answer is actually 3 teams. AF, CSU and Wyoming. AF should go independent like all the other military academies. CSU and Wyoming are simply never going to compete in the MWC against the top players of BYU, Utah and TCU in football. They also don't compete very well in basketball against UNLV, BYU, Utah and SDSU. I know that it all comes down to money, but being in the WAC would probably be good for CSU and Wyoming. I think they would be able to be very competitive and their fans would enjoy winning.

I would trade the WAC those two schools for Boise State and Fresno State. Then I would add SMU to replace AF. I really think that would be a great conference with BYU, Boise St., Utah, TCU and Fresno State being perennial contenders to not only be ranked but be in the top 25. Adding SMU would renew a rivalry with TCU and expand into Texas without getting too spread out. I also firmly believe that SMU is a program on the rise that has a strong football tradition and is committed to winning.

And if the MWC has rules about kicking people out then lets just dissolve the conference completely and then create the conference that I suggested with another name.

I generally agree with this post. A few points:

1. No team can get kicked out of the MWC, but any team can leave the MWC.

2. The other 6 teams could say "see ya" from the conference, but they would have to give up revenues earned (such as from the NCAA tournament) for a few years and would likely have to scramble to get bowl slots.

3. Might as well make it a 12 team conference to get a conference championship game. Wyoming and Air Force without question should go (Look at all the conference championships both schools have won if you need any incentive). I might keep CSU in order to continue to have a presence in Colorado. The 5 teams that should be added to the conference after kicking out Wyo and AF would be Fresno State, UTEP, SMU, BSU, and Hawaii.

CougarCommy wrote:

There was recent talk of BYU wanting to go independent (rumors mostly). But i was talking with a buddy explaining the old wac, and why we had tcu come in instead of Boise st. As well as mention when the wac commis went off on how great boise and the wac was, they turn around and repeatedly admit they want to join the MWC.

So I was wondering, who should the mwc kick out? IF we were allowed a swap who should it be with?

I think UNLV would make the most sense, they have a wac rival and suck. SDSU is arguable too. Many might agree any of the bottom tier teams would be fine to kick out, but I think unlv would be the best trade for boise or even fresno Any thoughts?

It really doesn't make any sense to kick out the reigning MWC basketball tournament champ for the last two years (UNLV). They have a much better NCAA tournament history than any other MWC team, with may be Utah giving them competition.

You can't analyze conference issues in a football-only vaccum.

Plus, the UNLV-MWC affiliation is what gives the MWC best access to the Las Vegas Bowl.

SDSU is valuable because it is in prime recruiting territory. I think BYU's recruiting efforts would suffer in southern California if SDSU left.

chodilicus wrote:

I think that the easy answer is actually 3 teams. AF, CSU and Wyoming. AF should go independent like all the other military academies. CSU and Wyoming are simply never going to compete in the MWC against the top players of BYU, Utah and TCU in football. They also don't compete very well in basketball against UNLV, BYU, Utah and SDSU. I know that it all comes down to money, but being in the WAC would probably be good for CSU and Wyoming. I think they would be able to be very competitive and their fans would enjoy winning.

Colorado State has only recently been bad at football. They won MWC conference championships in 1999, 2000, and 2002. Wyoming has a competitive basketball program. They also won the MWC regular season a couple of times back in 2001 and 2002.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_West_Conference#Men.27s_Championship_Winners

I would trade the WAC those two schools for Boise State and Fresno State. Then I would add SMU to replace AF. I really think that would be a great conference with BYU, Boise St., Utah, TCU and Fresno State being perennial contenders to not only be ranked but be in the top 25. Adding SMU would renew a rivalry with TCU and expand into Texas without getting too spread out. I also firmly believe that SMU is a program on the rise that has a strong football tradition and is committed to winning.

I think the better option would be MWC expansion. I don't know that Boise State has the staying power to continue their football success. But BSU wouldn't be the worst choice, by any means.

I would rather see the MWC look at Fresno St. as a potential addition, mainly because it is in California and could only help in that recruiting market. I also like a "wait and see" policy with SMU. SMU makes sense from the perspective that it would be the perfect travel partner with TCU (for basketball, etc.) and their boosters forked out a ton of cash to get Jones, which shows commitment for success. However, it remains to be seen if the commitment bears fruit.

It would be interesting to see a Mountain West with the following organization:

MOUNTAIN DIVISION
Air Force
Colorado St.
New Mexico
SMU
TCU
Wyoming

WEST DIVISION
BYU
Boise St.
Fresno St.
SDSU
UNLV
Utah


For Football, play your 5 division opponents, then 3 other division opponents (every other year) with the conference championship game to rotate among Salt Lake, Denver, Las Vegas, and somewhere in California (LA?, San Diego?).[And may be Dallas?]

For basketball, simply play every conference opponent twice or same division twice, out of division once. I think this would be a strong enough conference to land an auto BCS bowl within the next 3-5 years.

Basketball, etc., travel partners would be:

BYU/Utah
SDSU/UNLV
Fresno/Boise
TCU/SMU
CSU/Wyoming
Air Force/New Mexico

Let's do it!

Lets not bring in SMU.... id be more in favor of Nevada, Tulsa, Houston or even Montana than SMU...But id rather see UTEP.

They have upped its football program and lets face it they are good in Basketball all the time.

But what about going after Memphis, Boise State and Utep.

Would help out to get a more eastern program in that could be good in football and is already super good in hoops. We took from CUSA with TCU and its worked out well, and all they brang was football. They suck at hoops so lets get Boise, Utep and Memphis.

The only thing I could see them doing is adding Fresno St. or possibly, and a very BIG possibly, Boise St. Boise's facilities have improved or are improving a lot and both Central California and Boise would broaden the MWC's TV/Recruiting markets. Even cooler would be dropping Wyoming (tell me honestly what they bring to the conference table) and adding both, but I don't think that will happen.

It seems like if the conference poppa's were to think about this type of thing, they would be inclined to look at the overall sustainability and respect of a school's athletic program rather than just how well they do at a specific sport. That's where quality of sports programs, facilities, fan base, TV market, travel logistics, demographics, rivalries, and recruiting pools come into the equation, and that's where I don't think there are too many other natural fits besides Fresno 1st, Boise/UTEP 2nd, and then everyone else in a "not likely" category somewhere after that...

Adding Fresno State would have brought a national championship in baseball to the conference. With their World Series victory, young team and coaching staff they are going to be dominant in baseball for years to come. But baseball only seems to be real popular in the South and on the West Coast.