Yesterday there was a report that the Mountain West and Conference USA merger was likely not going to happen, and instead the leagues would work together in scheduling and possibly a media rights deal. Now there is a report coming from the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the merger is alive and well.
UNLV president Neal Smatresk, who is also the chairman of the Mountain West board of directors, was shocked when he heard about the CBS Sports report:
"I have no idea where that story came from," Smatresk said. "Somebody apparently has an agenda for leaking information that isn't so."
Back in February Smatresk said that the merger was 100 percent done, and he is the one responsible for setting up the television rights deal as well. From this same Las Vegas Review-Journal article, it says that the league is looking to finalize a deal with Fox, CBS and NBC that would pay the teams in the merger $2 million per year, and it also states that a deal is to be finalized on the merger in two weeks when the Mountain West has their annual spring meetings in Phoenix.
So, who really knows what is going on, but I still think the merger is dead.
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