Comments about ‘WAC commissioner calls latest departures 'selfish'’

Nicely played, MWC.

"ACTED SELFISHLY"

Of course they acted selfishly. As opposed to say....acted for the best interest of the conference.

Every instititution in the NCAA is acting in its own best interest. Commissioner Benson seems out of touch. This is dog eat dog my friend. You might want to be pro-active instead of re-active with stuff like silly "selfish" comments.

As Mr. Tom Holmoe said...."we will do what is best for BYU." He nor anyother institution will say we will do what is best for our conference.

BYU will look the fool if they stay in the MWC, now they have to share with Fresno State and Nevada. If BYU is smart, they will stick with the WAC, because the bottom line is going indy in Football, and the WCC, as interesting an idea as it may sound, is not really in the best interest of BYU or it's fans. Playing San Francisco, Portland Pilots twice every year? Yea, that'll sell out the Marriott Center.

All this selfish talk is a little hard to swallow. Am I selfish when I choose a gas station with cheaper gas? Am I selfish when I wait for a sale to buy a shirt?

I hope BYU comes out smelling like a rose in all of this but only time will tell.

The Mountain West is about to BECOME the WAC!

Utah and BYU are gone - BYU probably if not certainly.

TCU will be gone in 2 to 3 years.

Leaving: Boise, Fresno, Nevada, SDSU, UNLV, CSU, Wyoming . . .

Looks like the WAC, part 2. If you wind up in the same spot, how can you think you've made progress?

And the MTN Network contract lasts to 2016. Wow, that really is progress!! (to the rear)

It is interesting that Karl Benson, once commanded a 16-team 'super-conference' (the old WAC), and has slowly over the past 11 years watched it slip away. In my opinion, this has been largely due to strange decisions on his part that has doomed the league to a point where they now are only a six-team football league — not even eligible to be considered a Conference under NCAA rules.

For him to blame Nevada and Fresno State for "…acting selfishly…" by leaving the WAC for the MWC is petty and rings hollow. He has only himself to blame.

I've always felt that the MWC would have been much better off if they could have brought Karl Benson with them from the WAC to the MWC.

Craig Thompson has done everything he could to alienate BYU and drive off his flagship program. The Fresno State/Nevada invite to kill the WAC and force BYU to stay is just his latest miscalculation.

This guy doesn't seem to have too much trouble with selfishness when he is the beneficiary. The way this is going Utah State is going to be the perennial WAC champ in football and will be going to the BCS before BYU does.

All a very interesting development, some people are definitely going to be on the outside looking in after the dust settles. I hope the student athletes that have nothing to do with all of this don't suffer too much; what a shame to have the rug pulled out from under you after committing to and playing hard for your school! Best of luck to the Y, WAC, and remaining MWC student athletes...I feel for you!

lol flagship program-lol what a joke- flip start the byu conference- see if any on wants to play- what a joke- get over yourself little brother!!!

How is playing New Mexico State twice a year any better than playing Portland twice a year? At least that way we would be able to see our cougars play Gonzaga a couple times a year and still keep USU on the schedule so instead of seeing 2 good teams out of the WAC (USU at home and away) we get to see USU at least once, Gonzaga at least twice and on a good year throw in St. Mary's as well. Right now the WAC is less appealing than the WCC and we can go back to scheduling USU home and away ever year if we want to.

Max Hall said Utah was a classless organization. Now we learn that BYU colluded with the WAC in secret (that is, no public transparency) to extract penalties from teams who leave before BYU can become a member of the WAC. Two teams decide to leave anyway and the commissioner calls them "selfish". Compare the way Utah's move to the PAC 12 was handled vs this under handed debacle by BYU and tell who is the classless organization? Care to comment Max? But let's put some blame where some blame is due. The creedy money hungry 10 teams left in the Big 12 conference that won't fill two spots that were left vacant by the departures of Nebraska and Colorado. When BYU got no invitation to the big time money they got desperate and tried to pull this off. Desperate people do desperate things. I hope BYU ends up putting its non football sports teams in the WWC conference so that when Utah plays UCLA at home in basketball BYU will be playing St. Mary's in the Marriott Center. By the way, the WCC conference plays basketball games on Sunday.

When you say selfish do you mean like BYU leaving the MWC?

I beleive everyone is not getting Benson's point.

There was a date set by which if they intended to leave they would have to tell the conference. The dealine passed. It appears the "BYU to the WAC" idea had been developing for a while. Nevada and FSU would have had to have known something about that possibly occuring for Benson to proceed ahead with it. Yet, when it was ready to happen, UN and FSU bailed on the WAC and joined the MWC. Probably ending the WAC's bid to bring over BYU.

I believe that was why he was labled them selfish. Not that they did it, but how they did it.

BTW, I am sooo glad BYU isn't going to the WAC.

@Dutchman: There is no evidence but your own speculation that BYU "colluded" in any way with the WAC about penalties. And in any shift or change in conference membership, there is always some kind of quiet preparation, a testing of the winds, before any announcement can be made. That's a given.

Actually, the Y has been looking at this move for some time because of the TV problems and the departure of Utah probably sealed the deal.

Sounds like the BYU to the WAC is dead. It doesn't matter when Nevada or Fresno State come, 2011, 2012, they're still exiting at the right time. They were likely as blindsided by this as everyone else, and decided to move to protect their interests. Smart move. Now the Y has egg on their face and has to come back to LESS money, less prestige (sharing the spotlight with TCU and Boise) as well as having a stronger mid-section of the conference (Air Force, Fresno St, and Nevada) to contend with. Looks like those 11-2 years are over and done, the Y will be going 9-4 or 8-5 most years now. But on the bright side, they'll share in the guaranteed BCS money when the MWC gets entry in a few years.

@eastofutah, Pretty sure the WAC deadline to leave the conference was Sept 1, I'll have to double check where I read that, though.

@cougarlove,
So when has any big time opponents been beating down the Utesies doors to play them? not hardly ever.lol When was the last time they played an FSU or Oklahoma? Can't remember? lol I seem to remember that BYU played both those teams last year so I don't think BYU will have too much of a problem putting teams on their schedule, especially when they can grant national TV access for the games. lol

Dutchman:

Where is your documentation about collusion between BYU and the WAC regarding penalties. I think you are up in the night - you are trying to read between the lines something that is not there. Maybe BYU and the WAC ought to sue you for defamation of character. There is no way BYU would do what you are saying they did. The very most BYU would have said is, "we need some kind of guarantee that the WAC will remain intact until we join". That is not collusion! BYU cannot and would not tell the WAC that they should exact a penalty of $5M to any team that leaves.

No, Otis. He means selfish like Utah leaving for the Pac-12. If they had stayed, the MWC had a legitimate chance at receiving an auto-bid. Any Utah fan that claims BYU is being selfish needs to remember what the U did just a few months ago.

I'm trying to figure out what was underhanded about this. Utah had all their ducks in a row before they notified the MWC about leaving...why can't BYU be afforded the same luxury?