How the MWC could have saved College Football

What follows is un-researched but seems plausible in my mind.

How could have the MWC saved college football? Expansion. Boise St. has clearly built a following. It is no where near as impressive as their fans think it is, but the arrival of Boise St. has been fast and exciting. Beating Oklahoma in the BCS. Beating TCU in the BCS. Winning bunches of games and scoring bunches of points. Boise St. got coverage and became a media darling at ESPN. Friday night became Boise St. night on the mother-ship. The MWC should have extended an invite to Boise St. four years ago. Why not? The knock on Boise has always been the lack of competition in the WAC. It seems to me that Boise would have been thrilled to take a step up from the WAC to the MWC and play against teams like BYU, Utah, and TCU annually.

I argue that a conference composed of Utah, BYU, TCU, Boise St., and Air Force would be enough to block the movement toward super-conferences. Simply put, a conference with those five at the top would have to be reckoned with. You couldn't ignore them. You couldn't paint the picture of a "weak" conference. This conference would make a strong case for a place at the table of big-time college football. 

(Now, the argument against this move is that with adding Boise the competition improves. Therefore, the road to an undefeated record becomes that more difficult. The top-tier of the  MWC would beat up on each other and not one of them would make it to the BCS. This is a valid argument and lack of participation in the BCS would hurt the anti-BCS movement.)

The biggest assumption here is whether this conference would be strong enough to keep itself from imploding. Had the MWC added Boise 4 years ago and somehow been able to renegotiate a TV contract that rewarded the members who invested in their football programs, it may have been enough for the conference to stay intact. This renegotiation would have to happen, there is no way that TCU, Utah, or BYU would have stuck around with the current TV contract.

The didn't stick around. After Utah left, it became a question of when BYU would follow, not if. TCU to the Big East really wasn't a surprise. With the conference in flux and nothing positive on the horizon, the MWC became the WAC 2.0.


Here is a good breakdown of the current MWC TV contract as provided by the Idaho Statesman. Essentially it was a 10 year deal that began in 2006 worth $120 million over the length of the contract. As of 2010, the mtn TV network was available in 8 million homes, or around 8% of the footprint of ESPN and ESPN2.

Also in the contract was a provision that made it very difficult, nigh impossible, for local TV stations to broadcast games. This difficulty also applied to the rebroadcasting of games (in the case of byutv).

If it is not clear by now, it is my opinion that this TV contract led to the mass exodus of the MWC top-tier in 2010. First, with Utah accepting an invite to the PAC-12. Second, with BYU declaring independence. And finally, TCU agreeing to go and win the Big East every year beginning in 2012. If you believe that "exposure" (my least favorite buzzword in college football) is necessary for success, it is remarkable how well TCU, Utah, and BYU have performed since 2006. In TCU and Utah's case, it was participation in BCS bowl games. For all three, it was annual top 25 rankings. There was no lack of ability in the MWC.

The main problem with the MWC since 2006 has been leadership. With TCU and Utah playing in BCS bowl games, the MWC became the de facto representative of the non-BCS schools and of the anti-BCS cause. The 2008, 2009, 2010 seasons all finished with a team from the MWC in a BCS bowl game. The anti-BCS movement was strong, and the MWC should have capitalized.

Perhaps the most pathetic aspect of this transformational shift in the composition of the MWC in 2010, and that which encapsulates the lacking leadership in the MWC, was the hesitancy the MWC showed in extending an invitation to Boise St. to join. At one point, Craig Thompson said there were no plans to expand. Eventually the invitation was extended to Boise, but the only positive to come out of this debacle for the MWC was that they weren't as in as dire a situation as the WAC was. In fact, it was sucking the WAC dry that saved the MWC.

Though I cannot say exactly how, my argument is simply that a conference with Utah, TCU, BYU, Boise St. and Air Force may have been enough to stop the move toward super-conferences. Unfortunately, the leadership of the MWC was not proactive and in some cases not even reactive to the changing landscape of college football. Really, as leader of the anti-BCS movement, the MWC had nothing to lose by proactively trying to carve out their place in college football. Instead, the MWC just let the house come crumbling down around them and then rebuild with the likes of Boise St, Fresno St. and Nevada. Though formidable, not exactly TCU, Utah, and BYU.