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The big news on Friday was that Boise State is seriously considering staying put in the Mountain West, but now there is bigger news about a new conference possibly being formed. CBSSports.com is reporting that New Mexico and Colorado State are having informal talks about forming a new conference, and the two teams mentioned to be pursued are BYU and Boise State.
One reason to start a new league is to create the most powerful league out of the "Group of five," and to get more money than they are currently getting from the Mountain West. Another option mentioned in the article is to have the Mountain West somehow retain more of the rights from CBS so that they can sell them their selves.
However, CBS does not want to give up their first tier rights, which include the top 15 Mountain West football games. The current television deal goes through the 2015 football season, and the 2015-16 basketball season.
The likely idea behind Colorado State and Boise State trying to form a new league is to get a better television contract. However, this process of a new league is in the very early stages, and according to sources Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson has not heard of this idea and he recently spoke with Colorado State president Tony Frank.
Another source from this CBS Sports article is saying that talks have only taken place with athletic directors from New Mexico's Paul Krebs and Colorado State's Jack Graham. The other question is who will join the schools in a new league, because there are very few options to make a league that is completely different than the current Mountain West.
It could be possible that CBS would cry foul if a new league is formed just to get out of the current contract, and that new league is basically the Mountain West with some add-ons.
Idaho Statesman Brian Murphy sent out a tweet on Friday saying a new league has been considered by Boise State:
Before Boise State joined Big East, it commissioned a study on its options. Forming own league was No. 2 option behind joining Big East.
— Brian Murphy (@murphsturph) December 21, 2012
Not a shock that Boise State would want to form a new league, they could take the best teams out there -- not that there are many -- while creating a more lucrative television deal.