Tag: MWC

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Conference alignment is just nuts

The conference realignment is just nuts.
TCU has left the Mountain West Conference for the Big East. So instead of playing games in Fort Collins, Albuquerque and Las Vegas they will be playing in Syracuse, Boston, and Pittsburgh.

Now the Mountain West Conference is talking with Hawaii about a football only membership and Utah State is lobbying to get into the conference.

The Western Athletic Conference is in real danger of just going away leaving Idaho, San Jose State, Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State in the cold.

This is just nuts. And all because everyone is chasing the millions in the BCS.

Boise State started it all off by moving to the MWC to help the conferences opportunity to be an automatic qualifier into the BCS. But Utah, BYU, and now TCU have left and has really hurt the chance.

The only thing that is real plausible for the Mountain West Conference right now is to merge the WAC and MWC into one mega-conference. It would help its opportunity and generate some good competition.

Let’s bring some sanity to this mess, but I doubt this will happen.

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The Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference Should Merge

With all this conference re-alignment going on, the time has come for the Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference to merge and become one 16 team conference.
This is how it could break-down.

Eastern (Rocky Mountain)
Louisiana Tech
TCU
New Mexico State
New Mexico
Air Force
Colorado State
Wyoming
Utah State

Western (Sierra)
San Diego State
Fresno State
San Jose State
UNLV
Nevada
Boise State
Idaho
Hawaii (Denver)

The invitations to Texas State and UTSA are on hold depending if LA Tech goes to Conference USA and if TCU heads to the Big East. Hawaii is football only with the remaining teams in the Big West. Denver can take over the other sports left by Hawaii and swap with Utah State in the divisions for the other sports. This will build on the rivalries that already exist in Colorado.

This gives you seven division games plus a rotating game with the other division. It preserves rivalries and shortened travel. This is important because Air Force doesn’t want to play more than 8 conference games because of its commitment to play the other service academies. You also get a championship game that generates a lot of money.

This creates a super-conference in the west and it’ll generate a lot of interest and money for everyone.

The nice thing about this is the conference can get rid of The Mountain (the MWC network that no one likes) and go with a contract with ESPN and get the exposure that everyone wants.

What are your thoughts?