Boise State Broncos busting into the MWC

Mountain West Conference football just got a lot tougher this weekend.

Boise State won't officially play in the MWC until 2011, but with the addition of the Broncos on Friday, I'd put the top end of this football conference up with any league outside the Southeastern Conference. And remember, we know what Utah did to the SEC's Alabama.

BSU is a remarkable story. Few football programs in history have gone from maverick to giant killer as quickly as the Broncos. Nobody has won more football games the past decade. Boise State has caught the imagination of the country.

The league immediately gains momentum to achieve automatic qualifying status in the BCS when the evaluation period ends in two years. If the BCS plays fair — which, by its design, it does not — Friday's theft of the Western Athletic Conference's only diamond looms large. The MWC will automatically inherit BSU's record, mark against BCS schools and final poll rankings. The Broncos are expected to be a top five-ranked team when the first 2010 polls hatch this fall.

All of that adds to the MWC résumé for AQ status.

The Broncos instantly add to the league's "Big Three" in football (TCU, BYU and Utah). If you count Air Force, the top end of the MWC will be brutal, fully capable of adding to a successful tally against BCS competition year in and year out.

But the question on everyone's mind these days: Is the MWC through evolving? Could the league add more members in coming months? Could Utah and BYU receive a bid to jump to an automatic bid league? Answers to those questions remain unsettled. In the current flux of expansion rumors, anything is possible. In the course of 24 hours this past week, the Big 12 lost Colorado to the Pac-10 and Nebraska to the Big Ten.

While there's talk of salvaging the Big 12 by possibly adding other teams, and there are reports that Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and possibly Texas A&M could depart for the Pac-10 or SEC in coming weeks — that would create a 16-team Pac-10 and the first super conference.

Others could follow with raids to the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference.

The Pac-10 is not going to stop at 11 schools with the addition of the Buffs. If it doesn't add Big 12 teams, it'll come for Utah, according to most speculation. If that happens, Utah has to go. Conversely, if the Big 12 looks to add BYU or Air Force, they should go.