Conference Realingment: How The MWC Should Play Out Realingment

It seems as if conference realignment is going to become an annual year end event, though many would agree that the conferences were fine after 2005, with money being the main culprit. The college football landscape has turned into an imperialistic proving ground for bigger conferences to poach other, much weaker ones, such as the Big East. the Big East may not even exist after 2013 when Pitt, Syracuse, and Rutgers all bolt leaving UConn and Louisville as ACC candidates and Cincinnati, USF and Temple all to fend themselves. Last year the Big East made a desperation move to stabilize the conference by adding SMU, Houston, UCF, and Memphis all from Conference USA and adding Navy, Boise State, and San Diego State for football only, for what looks like an old Conference USA.

With the ultimate goal of each conference reaching at least 14 members, the MWC could make a move to stabilize their conference and make it even stronger than the Big east, if it isn't already.

Convince Boise State and San Diego State to stay in the MWC.

It seems as if Boise State and San Diego State are looking to stay committed to their moves to the Big East, although the list of pros for each of them gets shorter and shorter with every fateful round of conference realignment. Money and Playoff contention are key factors in their decisions to join the Big East, but if Louisville, UConn, and maybe even Cincinnati get the call to a different conference, Boise State and San Diego State may more deeply reconsider their move. assuming that the Big East gets ripped to shreds and forms into a Conference USA look a like, here a list of pros and cons if the Boise State Broncos and the San Diego State Aztecs go back to the MWC.

PROS:

Location: one of the more oblivious ones, the location of the MWC is the most ideal for each school and cuts down on traveling prices, and besides, Boise State & San Diego State should not regularly play teams in an eastern time zone.

Stability: assuming that the Big 12 doesn't want to expand westward or the Pac 12 wants to reach 14 schools, the MWC should stay safe in conference realignment.

Competitiveness: One of the Broncos reasons for wanting to joing the Big East was that it was a more competitive conference and their chances of making BCS bowls, and or NCAA Football playoffs was much greater than it was in the MWC. A year later that may not be the case. If the MWC can expand to 14 or 16 teams, the tables may turn and the MWC may actually may pose a better chance for the Broncos and Aztecs.

CONS:

Money: At this point this may be the only reason why both schools still want to join the Big East. the MWC may not give out a higher payroll than the Big East, although in a year or two that may not be the case.

Get BYU (or Montana), Idaho, New Mexico State, and UTEP.

The BYU Cougars may be a far fetched idea, as the Cougars would be returning to a weaker MWC, though bringing up Montana from the FCS may not be that bad of an idea as they have recenlty proven to be a football threat in the FCS realm and has been a consistent threat in the Big Sky for basketball. Both Idaho and New Mexico State will be most likely be looking for homes after the 2012 season and should join San Jose State and Utah State in ditching the WAC for the MWC. UTEP would be an interesting team, as it would branch the MWC back into the Texas market, plus the Miners already have a rivalry with New Mexico State.

at this point the MWC would have 16 teams and be right in the game with their fellow conferences, though if this were a fantasy world and every conference had 16 teams and could be totally revamped, i believe this would be the best for all MWC conferences schools as well as for all the other schools in Div. 1.

What It Would Look Like:

Mountain West Conference

West:

San Jose State

SDSU

Hawaii:

Fresno State

Nevada

UNLV

BYU

Utah State

East:

Montana

Idaho

Wyoming

UTEP

Colorado State

Air Force

New Mexico State

New Mexico

Big 16:

West:

Kansas

KSU

Iowa State

Iowa

Missouri

Nebraska

Wisconsin

Minnesota

East:

Northwestern

Illinois

Indiana

Purdue

Michigan

Michigan State

Ohio State

Notre Dame

ACC:

North:

West Virginia

Syracuse

Pitt

Uconn

Maryland

Boston College

Virginia Tech

Virginia

South:

UNC

Duke

NCSU

Wake Forest

Clemson

Georgia Tech

Miami

FSU

Penn State*

St. Johns*

* Penn State & St. Johns only participate in Olympics sports with the ACC.

SEC:

West:

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

Texas

Louisville

LSU

Arkansas

Mississippi State

Ole’ Miss

East:

Kentucky

Florida

South Carolina

Georgia

Alabama

Auburn

Tennessee

Vanderbilt

PAC 16:

North:

Washington

Washington State

Oregon

Oregon State

Utah

Boise State

California

Stanford

South:

Colorado

Texas A&M

Texas Tech

Baylor

Arizona

Arizona State

UCLA

USC