Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton —a talk radio host in San Diego— is reporting huge news out of Washington DC.

These rumors are everywhere out of the nations capital.  There are negotiations between the people for the BCS, as well as the Mountain West Conference.  If the Mountain West wants to get a guaranteed spot in the BCS, they must expand.  The expansion would include Boise State, Nevada-Reno and Fresno State.  Make it a power twelve team conference.

If it were guaranteed that they would get an auto-bid the MWC would pull the trigger in a heartbeat.  It is interesting that they are talking about expanding to 12 teams, to have a championship game.  Maybe ESPN knows about this, and are is negotiations to broadcast the league once they expand?  (If they expand)   Which could explain all the added publicity that they are giving the league.  This is pure speculation though. 

Adding Fresno State would help the MWC enter the Northern California market, and Boise State would certainly add more competition.  What's interesting is that Nevada is a possibility.  Maybe they are looking at them for basketball reasons?  I would expect Houston to be their third team.

If these rumors are true, look for expansion to happen in the summer of 2010, by July 1st.   That is the deadline for the teams to play in the league in 2011, the final year of the BCS evaluation period.

Follow Michael Rueckert on Twitter @MichaelRueckert