San Diego U-T: Mountain West still may grow beyond Hawaii

[RE Tycoon]

Couple of interesting quotes from the San Diego Union-Tribune Story:

“The really interesting questions are going to be what we start thinking about in January,” Weber said. “The first question would be: would we like to add more programs? If so, the question is whether it’s one or two (programs in addition to Hawaii). Beyond that, a question is where those programs would be. Do we want to stay in Texas, or do we want to look elsewhere?”

Weber said he doesn’t expect the questions to be resolved in January. If the board is “serious about looking at a couple of teams, we’d probably do that through the rest of spring and make a decision in June,” he said.

Weber said he didn’t anticipate revenue shares would decrease.

“Let’s be clear: the market in Utah is pretty small; that’s not a big marketplace,” he said. “While there would have been a market in Dallas-Fort Worth (with TCU), it wasn’t being accessed (because the league’s TV network, The Mtn., lacks cable distribution there).”

As for SDSU, Weber was asked if the Aztecs are committed to the MWC in the long term. “No comment,” he said.

Sterk said “no offers are on the table.”

Takeaway for me is if TCU couldn't draw the cable companies to carry The Mtn., SMU wouldn't be able to either. Also, this league is very unstable with ALL teams, even a program on life support such SDSU, prostituting themselves to any taker.

If offered, I'm not sure I like MWC as a viable option unless CUSA is falling apart around us. Worse TV deal with no ESPN games, and a network most people in Texas and points eastward can't get and/or don't know exists. For me, the MWC is a last ditch effort if schools start abandoning CUSA.

The hard part is you have to keep tabs on UH, UTEP and Tulsa, b/c we don't want to be in a situation where we decline, but UH decides to go and then a UTEP or Tulsa takes our spot. That obliterates CUSA-W and then we basically become on par with the Sun Belt. This is where an AD makes his money.

[RE Tycoon]

The more I think about it, the MWC should abandon the failure that is The Mtn. and try to wrestle away CUSA's contract with ESPN. The Mtn. and Vs. are horrible.

Also, you would think that one of the non-AQ's (or all of them together for that matter), could negotiate with Fox or NBC to get one of those networks into the Staurday college football scene (I know NBC has Notre Dame, but come on, and Fox has some deal coming up in a few years). ABC and CBS have multiple games every Saturday, while NBC and Fox are broadcasting infomercials or extreme sports.

The networks could get a sweet heart deal from a non-AQ conference for a fraction of the cost as one of the AQ leagues and almost guarantee a semi-marquee matchup each week. Make it a flex situation that is fluid and allows them to pick the best game of the week from the top 3 non-AQ conferences.

Anybody else think that would work?

[planoponyfan]

For what it's worth.. The Fox Network (not FSN) will broadcast the Big Ten championship game starting next year. That game and the Cotton Bowl will be the only college football games carried on the Fox Network.

Fankly, I'd like someone like Fox to create a competitor to the NCAA and ESPN. Offer any school that wants to a chance to leave the NCAA an go to a collegiate athletics association that has a real playoff system and a lot more money than they're getting now. This would be of particular interest to the non-AQ schools and would really screw the NCAA and the BCS cartel.

[DiamondM75]

For what it's worth.. The Fox Network (not FSN) will broadcast the Big Ten championship game starting next year. That game and the Cotton Bowl will be the only college football games carried on the Fox Network.

Fankly, I'd like someone like Fox to create a competitor to the NCAA and ESPN. Offer any school that wants to a chance to leave the NCAA an go to a collegiate athletics association that has a real playoff system and a lot more money than they're getting now. This would be of particular interest to the non-AQ schools and would really screw the NCAA and the BCS cartel.

I like your thinking. Start the American Collegiate Athletics Association and let any school that meets the association standards, join the association. Negotiate your own television contracts and make the league pure college athletes. No more semi pro programs pretending to be college programs. What I really like about the concept is you could have a playoff system and name a "College National Champion". Screw the NCAA.

Would this work?


No way, but what an idea.

[planoponyfan]

Get enough schools involved and it would work. That's probably the biggest hurdle to something like this: convincing schools to leave the NCAA.

[EastStang]

The BCS schools threaten a new association every time a playoff is mentioned. The problem for them is the non-revenue sports. They need the NCAA for those and FYI, they like the credits from March madness. No way that would work and would create a defacto Division 1 B for those that joined. Yeah, we won the National Championship for Division 1B. Now if Fox would broker a MWC - CUSA joint television, bowl and championship deal, that would be a way to break the log jam. Regional Fox and National game of the week. But regional Fox lives off the Big XII and the Pac-10 leftover games and won't want to upset that applecart.

[jrj84105]

Neither the MWC nor CUSA are in good shape in this era of conference reallignment. Neither has a hope of BCS AQ status. The MWC has a terrible TV deal, and CUSA is likely to lose teams to any further Big East expansion (SMU would get left behind in any scenario). Maybe it's time to build a new conference that is better suited to the current demands of the BCS era. ~4 teams each from WAC, MWC, and CUSA with a focus on recruiting and TV markets.
West
SD State
Fresno
UNLV
Reno
Boise
Hawaii
East
SMU
Houston
UTEP
Air Force
any 2 of NM, CoSt, Tulsa, Wyoming

This is a better conference than any of the 3 contributing conferences. Any teams lost to further AQ conference expansion would be easilly replaced as the western non-AQ leftovers would benefit from moving up to this conference. There's also little travel in division and recruiting in Texas and California (no other conference has this).

[couch 'em]

SMU needs to be grabbing UH and TCU and trying to get a package deal together to a conference wanting to make a dent in the Texas market. Maybe we get TCU to help us into the BE, maybe we get a package deal to ANY of the other AQ conferences. If the Big12 gets more unstable maybe get a school out of there to sweeten the pot.

It's the only way to longterm success for any of us. TCU should be hoping we get our act together and join them in a conference because getting double the media coverage and a major rivalry game is their only hope to building a larger fan base.

I'm going to go take a nap and dream of Notre Dame, TCU, UH, and SMU to the Big 10.

[LVPony]

Couch'em - that is quite a dream. Big East dreamable, Big Ten - whoa.

[Sammy 11]

If the B12 was raided and the BE also was (SEC, P12, B10, ACC all go 16) smu could be scooped up by either league so there is a scenario where it could happen well for smu.

B12 expansion by any 2 stable members would make this a likely outcome of a future realignment.

BU-ISU-KU-KSU-MU+2 and TCU-UC-UL-USF would need to reload if they don't outright combine.