It causes laughter for Mountain West to consider expansion

I never took Craig Thompson for a stand-up comedian — those folks need to actually talk a lot, yes? — but the Mountain West commissioner still tried his hand at some material recently. He said he had challenged the league to consider expansion, with or without losing current members to the Big 12 or any other Power 5 conference that might extend invitations.

Thompson soon backed off those comments, perhaps because someone in his office stopped laughing long enough to remind him about the state of the majority of football programs within his conference.

The Mountain West needs more bad football like Las Vegas does a few extra 100-degree days in July, given the preponderance of evidence that firmly establishes the league — past a few teams at the top — as virtual whipping boys for those in elite conferences.

And, in some weeks, those in not-so-elite ones.

UNLV opens league play against Fresno State at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium, where two 1-3 teams hope the arrival of similarly flawed opponents over the next few months will allow them an opportunity to produce a respectable final record and perhaps even flirt with a bowl berth.

“Obviously, San Diego State and Boise State are the standard of the conference right now,” UNLV second-year coach Tony Sanchez said. “But when you take them out of the equation, there are some great opportunities out there against a lot of teams in the same situation we are.

“It starts right now with a clean slate going forward.”

The conference began its decline as some of its best teams moved to pastures filled with millions of green bills, as Utah and Brigham Young departed after the 2010 season and Texas Christian the following year.

Since that trio bolted for the riches of other worlds, the Mountain West has, but for a few examples, been sinking like one’s shoes when stepping in mud after a heavy rainstorm.

Consider: Since the 2012 season, Mountain West teams are a combined 304-330. But the telling part, the absolutely eye-opening and ridiculous part, comes against Power 5 schools, in which the conference is 17-81 over that time.

Of the 81 defeats, 46 have come by 20 points or more.

Is the criticism of the league deserved?

“I think so,” Sanchez said. “Every once in a while someone will knock off a (Power 5) team, like San Diego State beating Cal. But as a conference, we have to do a better job at that, and we at UNLV have to own our part of it.

“I haven’t been in the league that long. Before last year, I was like a lot of people watching it (from afar) and maybe studying my (former high school) players.

“A lot of it comes down to depth and being able to sustain. A lot of teams in our league can’t afford major injuries. If too many of your guys go down, you’re going to have major gaps. And then it just comes down to recruiting. If you miss on too many players over a year or two in this conference, you start seeing huge discrepancies.”

He is correct in that if Alabama or Ohio State loses a starting tackle, there is a five-star player behind him on the depth chart ready to perform, that Mountain West schools can’t afford to lose a front-line quarterback or special running back or talented middle linebacker and not have it dramatically affect their season.

There are just so many great players to go around, and Power 5 teams almost always have first pick.

San Diego State is 19th this week and Boise State 24th in The Associated Press Top 25, the first time two Mountain West teams have been ranked since November 2014. The Broncos (43) and Aztecs (38) also have won the most games of league teams since 2012. They are more than holding up their end.

But of the other 10 programs, five enter October without a win against a Football Bowl Subdivision team this season and, since the league expanded to its current number in 2013, have managed an overall winning percentage of just .437.

It’s a problem for the Mountain West that might not produce a solution, given the landscape of haves and have nots continues to grow in this time of a College Football Playoff and loud whispers about the inevitable arrival of super conferences.

There is no question the league’s better days have come and gone, with the lone hope that every now and then a team such as the ones in Boise or San Diego this season might produce an undefeated record and move into consideration for a New Year’s Six bowl.

So another conference season has arrived and there is at least some talent at the top. As for most of the rest, Sanchez might have summed things up best when, following his team’s forgettable loss to Idaho last week, he was asked about facing Fresno State.

“We’re two bad football teams trying to become decent,” he said.

He could have been talking about a majority of the league.

Expansion?

Let’s hope that was just Thompson auditioning for Open Mic Night.

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney