Mountain West should add 10th member ASAP

In a recent 10-day span, the Utah men's basketball team went to Las Vegas for a Wednesday game, to Fort Collins the following Tuesday and Albuquerque on Saturday with a Saturday home game in the middle.

It can't be good for players to be playing several midweek games, which means they're missing two full days of classes and sometimes three. Also the cost of travel is much more with eight one-game trips, as opposed to four two-gamers, such as Colorado State and Wyoming on the same weekend trip.

So if the league does go to 10, who should it pick up?

Well, I've always been partial to our own Utah State. The Aggies would be a good fit for men's basketball, along with several minor sports. Of course that's never going to happen because of the school's proximity to Utah and BYU and the current state of its football program.

There's UTEP, Fresno State and Hawaii, schools that were kicked out of the old WAC, but they each have too many negatives.

Tulsa is a possibility with a solid football program and a basketball program that has been very good in recent years. For geography purposes, it would be a natural travel partner for TCU.

But the best choice would be Boise State.

The BSU football program has become a national power over the past few years, capped off by this year's thrilling Fiesta Bowl win to cap off a 13-0 season. The basketball team has become more competitive (just ask BYU and Utah State), and several other athletic programs are on the rise.

Boise State would make the most sense for a 10th MWC school.

And what about the travel partner for Boise? That might be a bit of a problem with no natural partner, but I'd put them with Air Force and put New Mexico with TCU.

It would be no worse than the old WAC when Fresno State and Air Force were travel partners, and at least there are several airlines with non-stop service between Boise and Denver (I know Wyoming is closer to Boise, but Colorado State and Wyoming are natural travel partners, plus Laramie is an hour farther from Denver than Colorado Springs).

Of course in an ideal world, both Utah and BYU should play in a BCS conference like the Pac-10 or Big 12. But since that isn't on the horizon, let's get a 10-team Mountain West Conference ASAP.

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E-mail: sor@desnews.com