Both Nevada & Fresno intend to join the MWC in 2011 / WAC to launch a TV network

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Just read an article from the Fresno Bee with two noteworthy parts in it.

The first is that Fresno and Nevada have both sent letters to Karl Benson stating they intend to leave the conference after this season.

WAC commissioner Karl Benson said he received notice from Fresno State of its desire to leave the league for the Mountain West Conference before next fall. The Reno Gazette-Journal also reported Nevada President Milt Glick said he has sent a letter to the WAC stating the school's plans to leave by then as well.

Apparently both schools are pretty confident they will be able to leave after this year despite missing the July 1st deadline the WAC imposes on their members for them to leave the conference after the upcoming season.

The second is the WAC has launched a new TV network intended to give it's member schools more exposure.

Amid further signs Fresno State and Nevada want out of the Western Athletic Conference as soon as possible, the WAC launched its own television network Friday designed to grant more exposure to its teams.

The WAC Sports Network will boost the league's visibility to 15 total regional markets in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Idaho, Washington and Louisiana. Selected games will be shown locally on KAIL Channels 7.1 and 7.2 and Comcast SportsNet California.

The WAC's new one-year television arrangement will not affect the number of Fresno State football and basketball games seen on TV or the amount of money the school will spend on broadcasts, said Paul Ladwig, the Bulldogs' associate athletic director over external relations and broadcasting.

The deal also is expected to bring in the same amount of money for Fresno State, but since the school will sacrifice some WAC revenue because it's leaving the league, it is an issue that still needs to be addressed, Ladwig said.

"In the big picture," he said, "we're spending the same amount of money and getting the same number of games on except they will be on a lot more stations, which is good for us."

Interesting move. Given the health of the league, this means one of two things to me. Either the WAC does think it will survive somehow, or this was something in the works during "the project" and they just went through with it anyway. I suppose it can't hurt the league, but I'm no expert on how TV deals in college sports work.

Another interesting article I read was this post on the RGJ.com Wolf Pack Blog. It gives a breakdown of how Nevada's athletic budget stands up to the teams in the MWC. Turns out they would have been the lowest in the conference going on last years numbers.

As most of you might not know, Nevada took a loss last year from their athletics. I've read figures saying the athletic department's deficit last year was north of $1.0M. This was the main reason the school decided to make the jump to the Mountain West, hoping the decreased travel and better exposure would lead to the athletic budget turning around.

The article is a pretty good read though, I recommend checking it out. It talks about the AD's budget crisis, breaks down how the different sports affect the budget, improvements the school would like to add, and details how the WAC athletic budgets last year stacked up to the MWC athletic budgets.

Also, VA Libertarian brought up something else noteworthy in this thread. Both Nevada and Fresno might be off the hook for the $5.0M exit fee from the WAC if BYU decides not to go through with the deal. Good news for both schools and the MWC. No exit fee means the school's programs won't be crippled, and the MWC won't need to provide any financial support to the new teams if BYU ends up staying.