Mountain West Conference expansion could come soon

A major decision regarding the future of the Mountain West Conference and its membership could come as early as next week.

The presidents of the nine MWC schools are holding their annual meetings in Jackson, Wyo., beginning Sunday. A vote on expansion by the school presidents could be one of the items on the agenda.

If the league does decide to expand, it is expected to add one school to the fold — Boise State.

MWC commissioner Craig Thompson told the Deseret News recently that the league has been looking at expansion models and that 10 teams would be a more feasible number than 12.

The last time the MWC expanded was on Jan. 30, 2004, when it invited TCU.

Speculation and rumors that Boise State would join the MWC have been cropping up for years. In the past, BSU President Bob Kustra has publicly declared his desire that the Broncos move from the Western Athletic Conference to the MWC.

The timing of the decision is crucial because, by contract, Boise State must notify the WAC by July 1 to become a member of the MWC in 2011-12.

The case for adding the Broncos, who have won two BCS bowl games since the 2006 season, includes enhancing the MWC's goal to become a BCS automatic qualifier (if BSU joins in 2011-12, its BCS accomplishments would count toward the Mountain West's BCS status).

Adding the Broncos could also be a pre-emptive strike should any current MWC team, or teams, bolt the league. There's rampant speculation that one or more schools — including Utah, BYU and TCU — could leave the MWC for a different conference.

The case against adding BSU?

A 10th member would force the MWC to split the revenue one more way. And while having 10 schools would be a good thing for basketball travel and scheduling, it could cause some scheduling headaches in football.

The MWC would either need to go to a nine-game conference schedule in football (which is what the Pac-10 does) or keep an eight-game conference schedule, where teams would not play every other team in the league on a yearly basis (which occurs in the Big Ten).

Nine-game slates also create an unbalanced road-and-home schedule, as some teams would get five home conference games, while others would get just four. Nine-game schedules would also result in MWC teams playing one fewer non-conference opponent each year.

Those are among the factors the nine MWC presidents must weigh leading up to a potential vote. A decision and announcement could come soon.

e-mail: jeffc@desnews.com