Report: Mountain West to Evaluate Future Scheduling with BYU

Aug 31, 2013; Colorado Springs, CO, USA; General view of the Mountain West banner on the field of Falcon Stadium before the game between the Colgate Raiders against the Air Force Falcons. The Falcons defeated the Raiders 38-13. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

On August 19th, 2010, word was spreading throughout the country that BYU was doing the unthinkable, leaving a conference to go independent in football.

The initial reports of BYU’s independent move was that the Cougars would be putting together a football scheduling agreement with members of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), and then all of BYU’s other sports would go to the WAC as full-time members.

The WAC at that time included the likes of Fresno State and Nevada who, for years, were never good enough for the Mountain West Conference until that August night.

Two programs that were always scoffed at by the Mountain West Conference in 1999 when the league was created, and in 2005 when TCU was invited; suddenly became attractive pieces to the MWC membership puzzle when the BYU-Independent news broke.

I still remember it to this day.  The mtn.’s Bill Doleman was interviewing Craig Thompson asking him why Fresno State was suddenly a fit for the MWC.  Thompson referenced the geography and Fresno’s history from the WAC days with members of the MWC at that time, and a Comcast logo on Fresno State’s press conference banner.  Really?  A logo on a press conference banner?  Comcast of course was the owner of the Mountain West Conference TV network, The mtn., but that’s what put Fresno State in the MWC?  The Bulldogs probably should have been in the league when TCU joined in 2005, but that was just one of the many failures by Thompson while BYU was in the league.  That conference call from Thompson left little doubt that this was a reactionary move to take down BYU’s move to independence, and leave the Cougars scrambling.  Thompson knew without BYU the MWC had no prayers of keeping their TV network alive.

It was a wild chain of events in those couple of days, but it summed up BYU’s relationship with the Mountain West & commissioner Craig Thompson in a nutshell.  The cornerstone of the league, BYU, was never treated as such.  Thus making the decision to go independent that much easier for the Cougars.  BYU ultimately declared their independence and found a nice landing spot in the West Coast Conference for basketball and their olympic sports.

The month of August 2010 was an uncertain time for BYU.  But now there is more uncertainty than ever when we look at BYU’s place in the sport of college football.

Craig Thompson is attempting to give BYU and their fans more uncertainty by saying his league is evaluating the future of scheduling the independent Cougars.

First reaction from this, I’m not sure what Thompson is trying to prove.  We all know that the current members of the MWC who didn’t play with BYU when the Cougars were a MWC team won’t drop BYU off their future schedules.  Boise State has a 12-game series with BYU, and it’s the one home game that the Broncos are actually able to sell-out.  BYU scheduled a 2-for-1 with Nevada, and Utah State willingly moved the in-state matchup to the month of November.  These teams want BYU, and BYU wants healthy relationships with these programs.

The Mountain West Conference had their spring meetings earlier this month in Phoenix, and that’s where the discussions about BYU and scheduling came up.  Here’s a snippet from Craig Thompson to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd:

"“We’re playing them more out of history, geography and convenience than schedule strength,” Thompson said of BYU. “Now that will bite me in the [backside] but you know what I’m saying. We have a history with them.”"

BYU is one of the few programs in the country that will schedule MWC teams in home-and-home’s that would have a positive impact on strength of schedule.  Averaging eight wins a season over the past 40+ seasons isn’t going to hurt the SOS resumé for any MWC squad.  BYU has a better idea of what actually hurts a strength of schedule ranking, that’s being stuck in a league with Wyoming, New Mexico, and Colorado State on an annual basis.

What can we expect from all of this?  Honestly, it smells like a ploy by Thompson and the MWC to put fear into BYU.  Not going to happen.  BYU will still get games with Boise State, Utah State, UNLV, and others.  Will we ever see Air Force and the other programs BYU beat on for 40 years?  Probably not in the near future, but that’s fine.  BYU isn’t actively blowing up the phones for a trip to Laramie in November again.

This is an attempt by the Mountain West Conference to generate some buzz about their league who has become irrelevant since BYU, TCU, and Utah left.  But like Thompson’s attempts for buzz in the past, (cough) The Mtn. (cough), this’ll fall on death ears.  BYU is going to play MWC teams, and MWC teams are going to play BYU.  There’s no stopping that.  As much as Thompson thinks he can, it’ll never happen.

What this ultimately proves is that BYU isn’t going to be joining the Mountain West Conference anytime soon.