Media's reaction to MWC announcement was hilarious

The Mountain West Conference's televised news conference on Monday was surprisingly entertaining. Because it was unintentionally hilarious.

Not because of anything the Mountain West did — or didn't do. And not because of commissioner Craig Thompson, who did a superior job handling the announcement that the league isn't expanding (immediately) and the questions that followed.

It was sort of hilarious because the room was filled with members of the Idaho media, all there to cover Boise State getting an invitation to join the league. Which didn't happen.

Idaho newspapers were represented. Idaho television stations were represented. Idaho radio stations were represented.

According to some reports, there were more members of the media from Idaho there than there were from California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas combined.

You know, states where there actually are members of the Mountain West Conference.

(Rumor is that while some members of the Idaho media said they were advised by Boise State officials to make the trip to Jackson Hole, BSU officials denied that after the non-announcement. As you would expect.)

And, it's difficult to say for sure given that we couldn't see the reporters' faces, but there seemed to be a certain tone of disappointment in a lot of the questions.

It was also sort of funny to hear questions Thompson was clearly never going to answer. In the apparent belief that Thompson was going to reveal specifics about what the nine MWC presidents had discussed.

Hilarious.

WAY TO GO, MTN.: Hey, good for our friends at The mtn. for carrying Monday's news conference live.

And good for CBS College Sports for picking up The mtn.'s feed.

If you're unhappy because The mtn. interrupted a replay of last fall's BYU-Colorado State football game, don't tell me.

I don't want to know.

YOU'RE ON TV: Televising news conferences can be good for fans but not always so good for members of the media.

Yours truly has been at plenty of news conferences when other "journalists" asked cringe-inducing questions. And it reflects badly on the rest of us.

And, on Monday, it reflected badly on members of the media when certain "journalists" repeated questions that had been asked and answered.

Ah, but some of us think we're just so darn important and impressive that Thompson is going to give us a different answer.

Or, maybe, some of us think we're so darn important we don't have to listen to anyone else's questions.

Hilarious.

e-mail: pierce@desnews.com