The scheduled Mountain West executive board conference call is taking place as scheduled this Tuesday and conference realignment will be high on their list. This time around it will be regarding the latest reports about Oklahoma looking to join the Pac-12 alongside Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.
Commissioner Craig Thompson talked briefly and vaguely about the meeting and conference realignment:
"It wasn't necessarily for this [referring to conference realignment]. There's just so much innuendo and rumor and hearsay and you read the ticker on all the sports things about this guy is talking to that guy and this president is talking. Until things happen, they don't happen. There's just so much out there. We're doing our diligence."
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"There's several options to take and several things to look at. That's all we can do right now, set up for all these different things," Thompson said.
Right now all the Mountain West can do is wait and see what other schools do. If the report is accurate where Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State do end up in a new Pac-16, then the Mountain West must make an attempt to go after the remaining schools.
However, Kansas State and Kansas have long been rumored to join the Big East and it makes sense for them to go after Missouri as well to form a 20-team basketball league and a 12-team football league.
In the end of all of this the teams that the Mountain West has a legit shot at grabbing are Baylor and Iowa State and neither really do much for me and probably no Mountain West fans either, but if a title game is worth upwards of $10 million then go after those two schools. Also, if 14- or 16-team leagues are the norm adding Baylor could be a key grab if the Mountain West wants to add schools in Texas, specifically Houston.
It just seems like this story is being reported on a regular basis with names being rearranged each time, so as usual we just wait and see.
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