Columnist Ron Kantowski: Eight teams works best in cozy MWC

Tuesday, June 10, 2003 | 8:58 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

If the whole idea behind this Mountain West Conference expansion talk is to make itself more attractive to the Bowl Championship Series, there's no need to form a committee or go any further -- unless, say, Southern Cal and UCLA are interested in seceding from the Pac-10.

Adding Fresno State and/or Hawaii is not going to make the BCS bat its eyes or look up from counting its money. No affront to those programs, but even in their best years, the BCS would much rather work with 6-5 Notre Dame than the undefeated Bulldogs or Warriors.

Nobody at the BCS will ever kowtow to it, but there's a reason they were pulling for Boise State to knock off Fresno a couple of years ago, when the Bulldogs and David Carr were still unbeaten deep into the season. The BCS is not interested in sharing chips and dip with anybody, much less party-crashers like the Mountain West.

So why would it be interested in the MWC, or any other interloper for that matter, if the Big East capitulates or at least becomes irrelevant in football when Miami, Boston College and Syracuse bolt to the ACC? By having fewer members, the fat cats get even fatter.

Besides, with Fresno and Hawaii there's baggage. The Bulldogs, who have been known to recruit more outlaws than Jesse James, are always just a heartbeat away from going on probation. And there's a reason so many of Hawaii's WAC brethren have been fitted with prosthetic limbs, because it costs an arm and a leg just to get there.

With the Mountain West, eight is enough. As the old 16-WAC showed the MWC members, there's strength in fewer numbers. The eight-team setup is ideal for football. Its round-robin schedule provides a true conference champion, and having four open weekends enables Mountain West members to schedule nonconference games as they see fit, whether they be rivals outside the conference or "body bag" games that help balance the budget.

Plus, with a cozy eight-team league, it's easy to get to know the teams. Given the conference's identity crisis with the average fan, that's a plus.

If MWC commissioner Craig Thompson is as sharp as I think he is, he'll let the presidents have their say, then do the right thing and suggest they leave the conference as it is.

Williams was designated for assignment by Arizona June 1, meaning he will become a free agent Wednesday if he hasn't been traded. There's already a Colorado connection, as Williams was part of a proposed off-season trade involving Larry Walker, who, according to the Rocky Mountain News, vetoed the deal.

The Rockies reportedly are interested in Williams as a right-handed pinch-hitting threat and a defensive replacement at third and first base.