Further expansion not in MWC’s plans

Craig Thompson sees himself as a pragmatist, and that’s how he approaches his job as Mountain West Conference commissioner.

He refuses to overreact now that Utah has decided to join the Pac-10 Conference.

Thompson said he has received plenty of interest from schools who want to join the Mountain West but doesn’t see any additions that would bring the league closer to its goal of an automatic bid from the Bowl Championship Series.

So the conference will stand pat, going with nine members into the 2011-12 academic year and without plans for expansion in the foreseeable future.

UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood agrees with Thompson, saying there are no expansion candidates who would help the conference meet its goals.

“In the bigger picture, you expand for two reasons,” Livengood said. “For a conference like the Mountain West, does it help you with the BCS, No. 1? No. 2, does expansion help your television contract?”

Thompson said he recently heard from eight to 10 schools interested in joining the conference. He offered no specifics but said it’s not hard to guess which schools would like to come aboard — UNR and Fresno State seem to be two obvious candidates.

Thompson had hoped this would be the week that schools such as Kansas and Missouri were mentioned in the same breath as the Mountain West. The conference’s future looked much brighter last week when Boise State accepted its invitation and the MWC seemed to be in position to grab some castaway schools if the Big 12 fell apart.

But the members of the Big 12 South decided to keep their conference together, dramatically changing the Mountain West’s situation. Not only did the MWC lose out on possibly attracting big-name schools, but the Pac-10, spurned by those Big 12 South schools, turned its attention to Mountain West member Utah.

The deal was essentially done, as reported in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, by Tuesday. An official invitation was extended Wednesday, and Utah jumped through the bureaucratic hoops Thursday to finalize the agreement.

Boise State for Utah, each with two BCS wins in recent seasons, appears to be an even trade when it comes to football.

The Mountain West will lose Utah’s points toward automatic BCS standing, Thompson said, but gain Boise State’s. The evaluation period is midway through a four-year cycle.

“To compete annually in the BCS bowl games remains our No. 1 goal as a league,” Thompson said. “We have made a two-year calculation, including Boise State and removing Utah. Our position remains very solid in that endeavor.”

From the standpoint of overall athletic department strength, however, the Mountain West appears to be worse off with a Boise State-for-Utah swap.

But if Boise State can help deliver an automatic BCS bid, few in the Mountain West would complain about losing Utah.

For now, though, the Utes’ departure is a disappointing setback for a conference fighting for national respect.

“You hate to lose members,” Thompson said. “A charter member, Utah has been a great part of our history. I don’t know what the future’s going to hold in terms of where this league goes and how performances will play out and what our national reputation will be based upon.

“That’s why we play the games, and we’ll see as it progresses.”

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.