Ultimatums never really work out to well, but for some reason the Mountain West decided to give one to the Boise St. Broncos. Boise State recently decided to join the Big East for football-only, but their home for non-football sports is still very much up in the air.
Mountain West officials said that they met with Boise State about the possibility of staying in the Mountain West and commissioner Craig Thompson said that it was "one-time opportunity" for Boise State to reconsider and return to the Mountain West.
However, Boise State athletic director Mark Coyle denied that there were conversations with the Mountain West about staying:
"No. I attended MWC meetings a few weeks ago. We're in that transitional year. Again, we want to continue to evaluate the landscape and make the best long-term decision for our program."
However, the Mountain West is saying a meeting took place:
"We had in-depth discussions with Boise State and made a very favorable proposal, but BSU has decided to continue with its plan to move to various other conferences. We are excited about the continued development of our membership configuration going forward and will proceed aggressively with our plans for future success."
Someone is lying here, but who and who would benefit from doing so? I would think if someone is not telling the truth it may come from the Mountain West side, because by publicly announcing that Boise State had a one-time chance to return to the league it would put even more pressure on Boise State to find a permanent home for their non-football sports.
Where as Boise State would have less of a reason to lie about a meeting because they still have not officially withdrawn from the Mountain West and do not have to do so until June 30, 2012, so they still can decide on staying.
Assuming that the Mountain West offered a ultimatum to Boise State, why would they give Boise State just one chance to make up their mind? There has to be a good reason why they did that, and the best that I can come up with would be that it was a scare tactic. The non-football sports do not have a stable home and maybe the logic behind the ultimatum was to offer a guaranteed spot for those other sports.
Well it did not work but I doubt that with Boise State gone that the Mountain West would immediately go out and grab Idaho and New Mexico State to form a 12-team league just to have a title game. There will always be a spot for Boise State if for some reason they need to find a landing spot for their non-football sports, because I can not believe the Mountain West would close of a potential return by Boise State.
It is easy to bash on the higher ups in the Mountain West on a myriad of decisions and at first glance this was another one, but by at least saying this was a one-time chance for Boise State to come back they placed some pressure on Boise State to make a decision.
However, as mentioned above Boise State still has not officially left the Mountain West, so the ultimatum really is not one at all because if Boise State changed their mind between now and June 30 they can still remain a member of the Mountain West.
UPDATE: Found more information and it looks like Coyle is busted for lying as CBS Sports is reporting that Craig Thompson and some Mountain West athletic directors were on Boise State's campus with Coyle less than two weeks ago.
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