The Mountain West is looking to cash in on what seem to be the final two years of the BCS in its current format by requesting a waiver to be able to earn an automatic qualifying spot for the BCS in 2012. The Mountain West currently sits on par with the Big East and ACC in terms of qualifying by the BCS' standards of becoming an AQ league. BCS executive director Bill Hancock has already said that the Big East will be able to keep their AQ-status and so will the ACC by virtue of their Orange Bowl tie-in.
Assuming things are fair and go by the numbers, it would be hard to deny the Mountain West an exemption when they performed similarly on the field as other leagues. The Mountain West's numbers even without Utah or BYU would put them on par, however TCU's numbers count even though they are heading to the Big 12 next year as do the numbers for San Diego State and Boise State who are heading for the Big East in 2013.
I am not sure if the BCS oversight committee can consider teams leaving or if it is strictly a numbers game. If the Mountain West is given an exemption for the 2012-13 seasons, and the 2013 version of the league would be without Boise State and San Diego State.
These reports are coming from Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman and Franck Scwhab of the Colorado Springs Gazette. With the possibility of the Mountain West gaining AQ status for 2013-14 would mean that any talks about a Mountain West and Conference USA merger would likely be on hold.
I personally would not hold my breath that the Mountain West sans Boise State would earn a AQ status, even if the system is to be blown up. However, AP writer Ralph Russo would not be surprised if the BCS would toss the Mountain West a bone during those last two years.
I highly disagree with Russo on that, there has been no indication that the BCS would give any favors to the non-AQ's. If they did then Boise State would have played in more than two BCS bowl games. The BCS has always been forced to allow more access to the non-AQ's, so tossing them $20 million over two years seems highly unlikely to happen.
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