Conference growth is possible by 2006

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, June 4, 2003 | 10:04 a.m.

After three days of meetings in Carlsbad, Calif., the Mountain West Conference's Board of Directors apparently came to a simple conclusion:

Eight is not enough.

The four-year-old conference, which broke away from Western Athletic Conference in 1999 because it felt 16 teams in a conference were too many, voted unanimously on Tuesday to lift its moratorium on expansion and formed a committee to begin developing parameters for possible new additions in the next 12 months.

The reason for the move could be summed up in three letters: BCS.

"The No. 1 priority coming out of the meetings was trying to gain access into the BCS," Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said. "We're not necessarily expanding, but we're going to explore our options."

The Mountain West Conference is on the outside looking in on the Bowl Championship Series and its $13 million paydays. Only the champions of the Big East, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and Southeastern Conference recieve automatic invites to the BCS bowls: the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose.

With the strong possibility the ACC is about to pilfer the Big East of heavweight teams such as Miami, Syracuse and Boston College, Thompson is hopeful that could open a spot for the Mountain West. Whether the MWC needs to add teams to have a better chance at snagging a BCS berth is something the committee will look into during the next year.

"There are a number of reasons for us to look at expansion," Thompson said. "Number one, it could help us with the BCS. Another is that it could bring more value to our next television package. And you have the scheduling issues. Maybe we add another (conference) game to the football schedule."

Thompson said he has not been approached by any schools yet interested in switching to the MWC.

"I've talked to a lot of people in the hallways, but no formal presentations have ever been brought to me," he said. "We're not even at the point to talk about (which teams might be added)."

And just because the conference has gone ahead with the subcomittee to determine its expansion options, Thompson said there still is no guarantee that the Mountain West will add teams.

"I think they're very pleased with the eight teams in this conference," Thompson said referring to the MWC presidents. "This is just a process to determine if we can make the conference better, to strengthen ourselves if we did expand. That's why it's even taken four years to take this first step and even look at the possibility of expansion."

As for rumors that MWC stalwarts BYU and Utah could be targets if the Pac-10 Conference expanded to 12 teams, Thompson didn't seemed fazed.

"I have no concern about that," Thompson said, pointing out that Utah president Dr. J. Bernard Machen and BYU president Dr. Cecil Samuelson are on the Executive Committee that will oversee the conference's expansion prospects. "I'm not concerned that anybody would leave the Mountain West Conference at this point."