Trying not to beat a dead horse, but the Mountain West Presidents meetings in Wyoming start this week look to be the first tangible evidence with conference expansion, because the Boise media is being invited to cover the event. The invitation by the Boise media leads everyone to believe something will happen this week. Now the Denver Post is on the bandwagon of adding Boise State to the Mountain West:
Football power Boise State appears to be only waiting for an invitation to become the 10th member of the Mountain West Conference. That invitation could officially come as early as Monday when the MWC's board of directors meets in Jackson, Wyo. Speculation around the MWC and the Western Athletic Conference is that Boise State will bolt from the WAC. Typical is the comment by Idaho athletic director Rob Spear, who recently wrote to Vandals fans in his blog, "I am predicting June 7 will be the day when the first shoe drops regarding conference realignment."
There was an idea that some of the bottom schools would vote against adding Boise State, because it would make it even more difficult for those lesser teams to move up the chain. My argument against that is that by adding Boise State would be the extra $18-$22 million the league would get as well as the uptick in recruiting for being a BCS league. A prime example would be Cincinnati who joined the Big East in 2005 from C-USA and won the Big East in 2008 and 2009.
However, in the same Denver Post article San Diego State president Stephen Weber said that the Mountain West must be proactive in expansion in hopes to fend of the Pac-10 that wants Utah and the Big XII who may want BYU or TCU if they lose teams to the Big 10.
Colorado State athletic director Paul Kowalczyk favors the addition of Boise State as well since it will bring even more name recognition to the MWC. The only news out of this is that other media outlets are thinking this is becoming a reality and that the less competitive football teams are in favor of adding a power house like Boise for the good of the league.
Also, include the higher ups at UNLV, New Mexico, and Boise State who view Boise State to the Mountain West an easy decision:
Boise State president Bob Kustra is openly in favor of a jump to the Mountain West. Two MWC power brokers, New Mexico president David Schmidly and UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood, have publicly advocated for adding Boise in their local papers in the last month.There seems to be no doubt of an impending invitation from the few Boise-centric media outlets, which seem psyched to descend on Jackson Hole en masse for the big news next week. If it doesn't come then, they won't have to wait long: To get the Broncos on by 2011, the deadline for an invitation is July 1 or bust.
So, just as the Mountain West was the first conference to have their own television network they will beat the Big 10 in the Great Realignment Battle of 2010.
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