The Mountain West did discuss other items at their board of directors annual meeting outside of the new logo. The board of directors discussed details about the BCS reaffirmed its commitment to generating change in the current postseason structure, an eight-game football conference schedule has been adopted for the foreseeable future, extended Craig Thompson's contract through June 30, 2015 but the biggest issue was the creation of an exit penalty for teams that wish to leave the league.
Here is the statement from the press release regarding the newly created exit penalty:
Effective this date, the Mountain West has added to its Bylaws resignation parameters which establish a significant financial penalty for an institution that chooses to depart the Conference. If a member institution provides notice on or before the June 30 preceding its subsequent June 30 withdrawal date, it shall forfeit its final year of revenue. If the resigning member gives notice after the established June 30 notice date, it shall forfeit its final year of revenue plus pay a sum of $5,000,000 OR shall pay double the amount of the final year's revenue, whichever is greater.
This still would not have kept BYU, Utah or TCU around since all three schools left before the deadline and the penalty for leaving prior to June 30 is to forfeit that last year's television revenue which would have been around $1 million. This is an improvement over having no penalty for when a team leaves the league with a year's notice.
As for the eight-game schedule being implemented, it makes sense because it can affect the amount of bowl teams the league would get with nine conference games. Plus it would put Air Force in a bind because they already play Army and Navy every year, and that would leave them with only one non-conference game. Air Force likes to schedule up for a game and down for a game each year.
The downside is that there could be a co-champion since not every team will be playing each other each year. The most extreme case that could effect the league is if two teams who have an undefeated season and do not play each other, and that could cause an issue if both teams are in the top-12 of the BCS standings. I would hope the league would have a tie-breaker set up that does not result in using the final BCS standings.
Craig Thompson also received a contract extension through June 30, 2015 which is not a shocker or a big deal that he was renewed. He has done good to the league and his move to poach Nevada and Fresno State was his best move and made the Mountain West well above the WAC which is on life support.
All the moves that were approved are all good moves for the league moving forward, well the logo decision is still a mixed review.
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