Mountain West board supports four-team football playoff as ‘progressive step’

By Taylor Bern

Tuesday, June 5, 2012 | 2:45 p.m.

The Mountain West board of directors, including UNLV President Neal Smatresk, completed their three-day spring meeting in California on Tuesday. As expected, football was at the top of the agenda.

The annual meeting is a chance for representatives to get together and discuss short- and long-term plans for the conference regarding stability and the changing landscape of the national scene. The final meeting included a conversation with NCAA President Mark Emmert to discuss those topics and the economic model “that continues to marginalize a broad spectrum of FBS institutions” that add value to the game.

Here are a few notes to take away:

• Board members support the proposal for a four-team playoff model as a “progressive step,” which sounds like they wouldn’t mind seeing it expand beyond that. They also discussed the possible bracket setup, the selection process and where games would be played.

• The board came to a consensus in support of a “conference champion component” to the selection process, as well as playing the semifinals within the current bowl structure. The most debated aspect of the playoff is whether the four seeds should be limited to conference champions or the four overall top teams as determined by an as-yet-unknown ranking system.

• As for the sharing of revenue, the board supported an equal distribution model that includes an academic performance component.

Nothing groundbreaking here, just a glimpse into the conference’s thinking as it tries to find its place in this ever-changing world.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.