Craig Thompson: MWC will stay a 9-team league

LAS VEGAS — During his annual "State of the Conference" address, Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson spent plenty of time discussing Utah's departure for the Pac-10 and the addition of Boise State to the MWC in 2011.

Thompson does not anticipate any more changes in membership anytime soon.

The MWC will be "a nine-team league for the foreseeable future," Thompson said Wednesday at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas. "Nine is a workable number. We like the symmetry of four home games and four road games. It makes a lot of sense for us."

In terms of conference scheduling, Boise State could replace Utah quite literally. The league is looking at swapping out the Utes for the Broncos. Instead of BYU and Utah squaring off in the final regular-season game of the year, as they have traditionally done, BYU and Boise State could face each other on that date.

"What we've agreed upon with the athletic directors is, we are going to take Utah out and put Boise State in their spot," Thompson said.

The commissioner added that it's unlikely BYU and Utah could continue to play in late November given the fact they will belong to different conferences.

"I would probably envision that season-ending game being BYU-Boise State," Thompson said.

Asked if replacing Utah with Boise State could hurt the MWC's chances for BCS qualification, Thompson emphatically said "no," citing Boise State's pair of top-10 BCS finishes in recent years.

Thompson once again emphasized that one of the league's primary goals is to gain access, on a permanent basis, to the lucrative Bowl Championship Series.

Overall, the MWC has performed well during the first two years of evaluation, but it must reach certain criteria in order to qualify over the next two years.

"It's halftime," Thompson said. "We've only played two quarters."

Part of the qualification process includes the league's overall strength according to the computer rankings. This is an area where the MWC is falling short.

While TCU, BYU and Utah have helped propel the league to the cusp of automatic qualification — the MWC has boasted three top-25 teams the past two seasons — the lower echelon of the conference needs to do its part, Thompson said.

That means that teams like UNLV, New Mexico, Wyoming and Colorado State must win their non-conference games to elevate the league's status in the computer rankings.