NCAA bids will enhance MWC’s image

Steve Addy

Wednesday, June 7, 2000 | 10:08 a.m.

The Mountain West had two qualifiers for this year's NCAA basketball tournament, and having an automatic bid wouldn't have altered that. MWC tournament winner UNLV would have made the field, and Utah still would have gotten in.

But for next season and beyond, the national profile of the MWC will be boosted next month when the NCAA basketball committee rubber-stamps automatic bids for the year-old conference in the men's and women's tournaments.

From now on, the winners of the conference tournaments at the Thomas & Mack Center will advance to their respective NCAA tournaments, a cause championed by MWC commissioner Craig Thompson for nearly a year. The Mountain West wasn't eligible last season as a new conference, having broken away from the Western Athletic Conference.

"It might be more image than reality, but there is no question it raises the competitive level (of our conference)," Thompson said Tuesday from Colorado Springs, where the Mountain West board of directors met for three days.

"It is a recruiting tool. I know that people probably negatively used it against us this year. As far as it getting us extra teams (in the tournament), we will have to wait and see, but it's very prestigious and it's a recruiting advantage."

Thompson disagrees with critics who say conference tournaments detract from regular-season drama.

"I do not think it lessens the regular season at all," he said. "We had a very good year. We were fourth in the NCAA in average attendance at just under 10,000 (behind the Big Ten, ACC and SEC). I think the regular season speaks for itself."

Though Thompson concedes "there has been grumbling" that UNLV has an unfair advantage because the tournament is held on its home court, the event is contracted with the Thomas & Mack Center for two more years. Thompson said UNLV does not have an overwhelming advantage playing at home, though he would have trouble convincing MWC coaches of that.

Thompson remains convinced that Las Vegas is the best available site. Some coaches think the Pepsi Center in Denver is viable.

"We've looked at rotating the tournament, but I don't know that the league has a neutral court that would sustain the level of exposure we get from having it in Las Vegas," he said.

At the Colorado Springs conclave, the Mountain West board also approved changing the basketball schedule to predominantly Saturday-Monday, instead of the previous Thursday-Saturday. It will give ESPN a better selection of Big Monday games, but also correct problems with last season's schedule. Some teams went a week to 10 days between games, and travel was an ongoing problem.

"Taking one game off of Saturday and putting it on Monday was creating havoc," Thompson said. "This will give ESPN three or potentially four games to choose from and it will remedy some of the other issues in regards to gaps in the schedule and travel partners."

In another basketball matter, Thompson said he might have erred in voting for the NCAA recruiting reforms, saying, "I think the Mountain West needs summer recruiting."

Thompson called his vote a "good faith effort" to support reform, but said he thought the summer recruiting proposal would be retooled prior to the vote. It wasn't, and summer recruiting will be cut in half next summer and eliminated in 2001, though different plans are being touted for 2002 and beyond.