Mountain West balks at expansion, considers basketball tourney sites
The Mountain West decided 12 football teams and 11 in basketball were enough and will not expand. The league considered adding Rice and Texas-El Paso, but declined to take such action at the conference meetings on Sunday at Monday in Phoenix.
Also, the conference soon will announce the site of its 2017, 2018 and 2019 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Those tourneys, which have been played in Las Vegas for all but three years since their inception in 2000, are expected to stay in Las Vegas, but whether they are at the Thomas & Mack Center is the more likely question.
For sports other than basketball, the Mountain West announced it would establish criteria for bidding on championship sites.
Also, the Mountain West will create a proposal that would place limitations on member schools accepting athletes who had been disciplined elsewhere.