I thought all the conference jumping was over and looked forward to the new season starting in less than three weeks. But nooooooooooo the conference shakes ups are still happening. A major shake up is happening in both the Mountain West and WAC Conferences.
Earlier this summer, Boise State was invited to the MWC and leaving the Western Athletic Conference in the 2011 season. Things seemed fine and settled. Then the Utah Utes, one of the Mountain West`s premiere teams was invited to leave the conference and join the PAC 10, naturally they accepted, sending shock waves through the MWC.
Speculation was the TCU and Brigham Young would leave the conference. This did not happen and again the dust settled.
Today a tornado has swept through both conferences. The Mountain West first announced that BYU is exploring its football options and may go independent and have the rest of their sports reside in the WAC. The local news has confirmed BYU which is owned by the Church of Later Saints is going to go independent. Church officials are expected to make that announcement tomorrow.
How does this effect the WAC? The Mountain West has extended invitations to two of their remaining top tier teams, Fresno State, which the local news KTVB says has accepted and to The University of Nevada Reno.
If what KTVB is reporting is true, then the safety measures to stop WAC raiding have failed in part. Because of the Boise State move, The WAC installed a new buyout clause of $5 million for teams seeking greener pastures. Apparently Nevada Reno as of this writing has not made a decision.
Throwing more mud into the now murky waters is the suggestion that San Diego State and the University of Las Vegas may bolt the Mountain West Conference and move to the WAC.
Creating more confusion is speculation Boise State might want to return to the WAC, however as much as they have dominated the WAC with Fresno joining the Mountain West that might not be such a good idea.
I think the Broncos have to wait and see what Reno and TCU do. This musical chairs could be the final nail in the coffin known as the Western Athletic Conference.
Millions of dollars are at stake, ESPN could and would realistically negotiate down the 2011 tv contract with the WAC because of the Fresno, Boise State departure, should Reno leave the new top tier teams would be Hawaii and La Tech.
With BYU and Utah leaving the MWC, they take alot of subscribers to direct tv company that holds their contract. BYU averages well over 64,000 fans per home game and has them ranked 27th in the country for home game attendance.
Because Fresno has accepted the MWC invitation and I suspect Nevada will as well, that conference will be ok. For the time being they have lost any hope of becoming an automatic qualifying conference in the BCS. The WAC, if they do survive they will become a bottom tier mid-major conference.
Just when we thought that the conference swapping musical chairs was done for the year, now this, oh well now its onto football. Be sure to watch Boise State and Virginia Tech tee it up on September 6, that should be one heck of a game.
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