MWC presidents, ADs ready to discuss expansion

Steve Guiremand

Monday, June 2, 2003 | 9:28 a.m.

The Mountain West Conference's Board of Directors began three days of meetings on Sunday at The Aviara Four Seasons Hotel in Carlsbad, Calif., during which the topic of possible expansion is expected to be seriously explored for the first time since the conference was formed in 1999.

Sunday's meeting, which also included athletic directors from the MWC's eight schools, served to form an outline for meetings both today, when NCAA President Myles Brand will address the group, and for Tuesday, when expansion and the Mountain West's prospects to be included in the Bowl Championship Series in the future will be addressed.

The Mountain West Conference has agreed to not expand before 2004. However, any plans to add a team or teams would likely have to be made at least a year before that.

"They haven't discussed expansion possibilities yet," Javan Hedlund, Director of Communications for the Mountain West Conference, said. "That topic will be addressed in the next two days."

With Miami, Boston College and Syracuse serioiusly considering departing the Big East Conference to join the Atlantic Coast Conference to form a 12-team super conference, there has been some speculation that the Mountain West Conference could add up to as many as four teams in the near future.

"It's quite an interesting time on the national scene in terms of athletics and where it is going," UNLV President Dr. Carol C. Harter said. "I think the realignments around the country are going to clearly make these (expansion) discussions different than they have been in the past."

Just because the ACC expands doesn't mean the Mountain West will immediately follow suit.

"You can't expand overnight," Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson said.

"We're a very cozy conference with eight very good schools," Harter said. "I'm very comfortable at where we are. (But) we have four new presidents out of eight and we don't know where they are in their thinking. It's possible we could be talking expansion. It's also possible we could say we don't want to expand at this point."

If expansion is discussed, Harter said she would lobby to add in-state rival Nevada-Reno to the Mountain West.

"Oh, yeah, I would," she said. "Look at the rivalry. The reason I'd like them in the conference is I think the rivalry would get upgraded."