Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson is positively gleeful about the recent decision of the Atlantic Coast Conference to expand to 12 teams and the resulting anguish it is causing the Big East Conference.
"I'm hoping for as much chaos in this so that the status quo does not remain as it is," Thompson said. "Things could be moving all over the place."
So why is Thompson so happy about another conference's possible demise?
Because it can only help his own conference.
The Mountain West Conference is holding its annual meeting in California June 1-3, and talk of the BCS will be a major agenda item, along with league expansion for the first time.
There has been a moratorium on expansion in place until 2004, but now that it's halfway through 2003 and considering the recent developments in the ACC, the topic is ripe. And while no definitive action may come out of the meeting, the first steps toward expansion could be taken.
"I'm not saying we're going to expand," said Thompson. "But it's kind of scary these days because a commissioner has to be pro-active, reactive as well as clairvoyant."
The MWC happens to be one of the ugly stepsisters among the nation's major conferences. There are six big conferences (Big Ten, Pac-10, Big 12, SEC, ACC, Big East) that hoard most of the money generated in college football through the Bowl Championship Series contract, which runs through 2005.
Besides the "Big Six" conferences, five other leagues play Division I-A football, including the MWC, and are left on the outside looking in at the big bucks the big boys receive thanks to BCS.
The Mountain West is hoping to be the beneficiary of the current chaos and perhaps pick up a berth in the BCS and get a bigger piece of the financial pie. The ABC-ESPN contract is due to be renegotiated in approximately 18 months. There's also talk of a fifth BCS bowl, at which the MWC might get a shot.
While Thompson is cautious in talking about possible expansion, University of Utah president Bernie Machen, who will chair next week's meetings, is a little more willing to discuss it.
"We talk about it every year in a general sense," said Machen. "This year we're watching very closely what happens with Miami (leaving the Big East for the ACC). If the Big East crumbles, that might put us in a position to be part of the BCS."
Machen said the MWC has looked to Conference USA as a partner in trying to break the BCS stranglehold. However it could turn out to be a negative for the Mountain West if the Big East siphons off a couple of the bigger C-USA schools such as Louisville and Cincinnati and is able to keep its BCS berth. Then the MWC may not want to have anything to do with a weakened C-USA.
NCAA president Myles Brand will be at the meeting on Monday to discuss the BCS situation with the MWC presidents, who hope to make some headway.
"One of the major thrusts is to try and get the Mountain West to be part of the ABC-ESPN contract that's coming up," said Machen.
As far as expansion goes, Machen said there are many questions to be asked.
"Do we expand? Hold at eight? Should we take one school to get balanced schedules in football? Or should we take two just to show the rest of the country, we're in play?
Machen doesn't seem too keen on going to 12, perhaps remembering he was one of the ringleaders in breaking up the unwieldly 16-team WAC.
"We may not see 12 right after eight," he said. "I can't imagine going to 12."
However, if every other major conference in the country is going to 12, perhaps with the exception of the Pac-10, the MWC may not have much choice.
Although it seemed to be a quick procedure when the WAC went to 16 in 1994 and the MWC was formed in 1998, Thompson calls expansion a "three-step process"
"The first step is answering the question, Should we expand? The second is defining the criteria of how many and which teams should be considered. The third step is going out and searching for somebody."
Thompson calls it a "long process" and said "we haven't even made it to step one yet."
If the presidents decide expansion is a good idea then "we could come out of the meeting with a charge for the commissioner to get us a list of schools that we might like to look at," said Machen.
Thompson refuses to speculate about which schools might be considered for expansion but said it will be western schools and not likely rejects from a broken-up league on the other side of the Mississippi.
"We're obviously not going into the eastern time zone or the South," Thompson said. He also said the schools they may be going after won't be ones that are already well-established, with the obvious possibilities being schools from the WAC.
That would be Boise State, Nevada, Fresno State, Hawaii and possibly Tulsa. Utah State would be another school considered, although it's likely USU wouldn't get much support aside from Utah and BYU.
Although Fresno State looked like the front-runner a year or two ago, the recent sanctions in the athletic program could have pushed it down the list. Boise State, with a strong football program and a burgeoning populace, could be No. 1 on the MWC list right now.
So what are the chances the MWC will choose to expand, either next week or perhaps later this summer?
"It would have to be some kind of bold affirmation," said Thompson. "I'm not saying we're going to expand. It's going to take awhile."
One reason it's unlikely anything substantive on the expansion front will happen next week, is the instability among MWC college presidents. Exactly half of the schools are in the middle of turnover at the top. And it's the college presidents who make the decision on expansion with 75 percent needing to agree, according to MWC by-laws.
BYU President Cecil Samuelson, who succeeded Merrill Bateman, has been on the job for less than a month. Larry Penley is taking over at Colorado State July 1, but outgoing president Albert Yates will be representing CSU at the meeting. At New Mexico, Lewis Caldera is the new president and although he'll be at the meetings, he doesn't officially start his job until the end of July. Air Force, which is changing leaders following the scandals earlier in the year, will only have a faculty representative at the meetings.
"Because of the cast that will be there, it's just not timely," said Thompson about making a definitive decision on expansion.
Samuelson said he's not qualified to talk about the idea of expansion because of his inexperience but called the process "fascinating."
"I really don't know much about it, except that we ought to look at it," he said. "I think it's very important for all of us. I know Bernie very well, and I hope we can do whatever will benefit both BYU and Utah."
Thompson did say even if nothing was decided next week, the conference could take action later this summer or fall and wouldn't have to wait until next year's annual meeting.
However, despite all the expansion talk, getting a piece of the BCS pie is still the main focus, according to Machen.
"The key for us is not whether we're going to be 8, 10 or 12 schools," said Machen. "It's whether we've got a shot at a part of the BCS. That's what we're focusing on and is the whole ball game as far as we're concerned."
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