AUDIO: Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson Talking Hoops And Expansion
This is a great interview that was done during the conference tournament and it is a good listen.
The interview is a lot about the basketball being so good and the extra money the league and participating teams will get. The real topic was expansion since at these tournaments the schools get together for informal meetings on the league.
To me it sounded like Craig Thompson was approaching expansion as a reactionary instead of a proactive approach. He said since nothing was done with teams realigning or contact being made with their schools; most specifically from the Pac-10 to Utah. I get his point that there is no need to panic, but with all the public knowledge from the Pac-10 and Big 10 looking to expand the MWC should be looking to protect themselves.
The biggest shocker was that any Mountain West school that wants to leave can without penalty which is odd since every league has some type of penalty such as The Big XII where any team must give two years notice and forfeit 50% of revenue. That might be enough to keep Colorado from jumping ship, especially since they are keeping around Dan Hawkins and not buy him out.
Craig Thompson made the impression that if a team does not want to be there then fine we do not want you, and that also comes across as saying it is a privilege to be in the MWC. The other item of interest on expansion is that the league commissioners do no the super secret BCS formula with their weight and that Thompson believes that the info will be released next month. Also, since he knows the numbers and that will determine if they expand **cough Boise State cough** to ten 10 teams. Money is an issue since to expand the revenue needs to be at least equal with a 10th team as each nine teams are getting now.
I guess since he knows the formula expansion will hinge on if the MWC is above the threshold then why expand, but then again who says that the league will keep their current success of three top 25 teams and a BCS appearance. Adding Boise should guarantee a BCS invite, and I still expect it to come this summer.
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audio issues
For some reason the code is being weird and I am having trouble being able to play the interview from the page, but I added a link to the intro to listen.
nevermind
Who ever uploaded to that website did not do it properly. Instead the somehow redirected it back to the home page.
Expansion thoughts
The BCS has stated that all conferences have had access to the formula and an agreement to keep it confidential.
The BCS has also indicated that a growing sense is building that this formula should be made public. I expect this to happen after their annual meeting in late April.
Boise State should push them over the edge for 2012-2013. Losing teams to the PAC 10 and Big 12 will likely knock them back out in 2014.
That’s my take and I’m sticking to it.
BCS Evolution -- Punctuating the Equilibrium - twitter
Sounds like a must listen to interview for me. Too bad audio won't work
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by Michael Rueckert on Mar 14, 2010 9:49 PM PDT reply actions
I know
Too bad I dont work there anymore or I would pull it from the hard drive. I just switched radio stations I worked at. I thought about getting the audio straight from the computer on my last day on Saturday but it was too busy and i forgot.
by Jeremy Mauss on Mar 15, 2010 6:55 AM PDT up reply actions
1320 KFAN
I produce the Rockwell Action Sports Report. Got a decent deal to do one show a week and get paid the same as doing three or four. I am hoping to do more mainstream sports once I figure out their system and when they need help/
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