Thompson won’t stop fighting for BCS changes

By Ryan Greene

Thursday, July 23, 2009 | 2:30 a.m.

Fighting for Their Guys

Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player

Share

• digg
• Facebook

E-mail this to a friend »

URL:

Download

• 720p - Quicktime
• iPod

Share

• digg
• Facebook

E-mail this to a friend »

URL:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2009/jul/22/2463/

Embed

Despite the release of TCU as the preseason favorite in the Mountain West Conference, all of the talk at media day focused on the conference's attempt to be considered a BCS school.

AP

Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson testifyies before the House Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing on the football Bowl Championship Series on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 1, 2009.

For the time being, the dust has settled around Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson.

The league's battle against the monster that is the Bowl Championship Series — a fight for a change to the current system — has technically subsided for the next four years.

But Thompson believes something was accomplished, and that's the notion that while nothing will change in the immediate future, the discussion won't necessarily be left in the wake.

"I really didn't have great expectations," Thompson said on Wednesday at MWC media day at Green Valley Ranch. "They weren't going to accept a playoff. And nothing that we brought up or talked about hadn't been presented in some form or fashion previously.

"We're just trying to raise the interest, raise the conversation and get people thinking, 'That does kind of make sense' or 'That would work.' That has been accomplished. People are devoting more time and attention in looking at the BCS."

Thompson's not blowing smoke.

Almost every college football special airing on major sports networks during the offseason has at some point touched on the Mountain West's argument and its proposed eight-team playoff system.

It's already been made known that the Mountain West Conference and its backers in Congress -- namely Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) -- are not giving up the fight.

The league said in a released statement last week that "it had no choice" but to sign the agreement between the BCS and ESPN, which will run through 2013. The Mountain West was the last conference to sign.

"The truth of the matter is it works for six (conferences)," he said. "It works very well for six. There needs to be a catalyst for change, and it's not going to be the Mountain West particularly pushing someone anywhere.

"I think they're listening, but they're not forced to action. Again, there's a couple of factors that will change that perspective. General public is number one. Ticket-buying fans saying, 'I'm not going to go to those bowl games anymore until you change the system.' We're all college football fans, that's not going to happen. They're still going to go; they will still watch. Maybe it's the congressional piece. Maybe it's the presidential piece."

The much-debated current system, which hasn't changed much since 1997, gives automatic BCS berths to the winner of the six major conferences — the Pac-10, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, Big East and SEC. There are then two at-large bids given based on the final BCS rankings.

The Mountain West's major huff came after last season, when Utah went undefeated through the regular season, yet took on an at-large SEC foe in Alabama in the Sugar Bowl while a pair of one-loss teams — Oklahoma and Florida — met for the national championship.

Utah won handily, 31-17, but still never got the shot it felt it deserved at the crown.

Call it a slap in the face, call it what you will.

Either way, the league calls it injustice, and plenty in the general public don't disagree.

"We're fighting for our guys," Thompson said. "We think that we have earned something different and now can't stop or slow down. It's day-to-day; it's recorded every week. People are going to be watching us like never before."

Call it a cliché, but the Mountain West has now officially stepped to the plate in the public eye.

For years, MWC teams have scheduled non-conference games against schools from the BCS conferences and have held their own.

Now, with more people keeping tabs on the league than ever, there is little room for complete failure.

Plenty of marquee games await the Mountain West early on.

BYU will open the season against Oklahoma — a sure-fire Top-5 team in both polls — in Dallas, then host Florida State two weeks later in Provo.

TCU — the preseason favorite in the MWC — goes on the road to face a pair of ACC foes in Virginia and Clemson.

Utah plays non-conference games at home against Louisville and at Oregon.

That's just the start of it.

"I can read the scorecard in September. If we don't do well, they'll say, 'Yep, see, they can't do it. They're not there.' If we do have success, they'll say, 'Maybe they're right, maybe they've got an excellent point and can play at this level.' The SEC doesn't have to schedule (like that), because they've got those games within. Our biggest games are Oklahoma, at Virginia, at Clemson, at Oregon, Florida State at BYU. Those are our biggest games.

"It needs to be a successful year in terms of how we do in those big non-conference games. In 15 games, if we go 2-13, that's not going to help the cause on any level."