Nevada, Fresno St. join MWC
Published 4:29 am Thursday, August 19, 2010
SALT LAKE CITY — The Mountain West is growing, the Western Athletic Conference is in danger of being whittled away and BYU is considering going it alone – at least in football.
The west went wild Wednesday in the latest round of conference shuffling in college sports.
Fresno State and Nevada ended a day of fast-paced change by accepting invitations to join the Mountain West Conference, which has added three prominent members of Western Athletic Conference in the last two months.
Boise State is already bound for the MWC next year and now the Bulldogs and Wolf Pack are following as well, leaving the WAC’s future in question and the Mountain West preparing for life after Utah – and possibly without BYU, too.
“We’re simply looking at getting better and we got better tonight with Fresno State and Nevada joining our league,” Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said in a conference call Wednesday night.
Thompson spoke after returning from a meeting in Philadelphia with Comcast and CBS officials, who said they wanted the league and its television network — The Mtn. — to reach more markets. The league started the network a few years ago, giving up national exposure on ESPN for more scheduling freedom.
“(Expansion) just made lot of sense at this particular juncture. We got better and we helped our TV position,” he said.