The Fear of Standing Still

Mountain West to Boise St., San Diego St. and BYU: Drop Dead!

Aha!, the Big Ten has initiated another round of manic re-alignment. By nabbing Maryland from the ACC and Rutgers from the Big East, the Big Ten has kicked off another round of cherry picking. The problem being, that the best cherries have already been picked. Demographics and cable money are behind the latest greedy grab.  By moving into the Mid-Atlantic, Washington DC area and New Jersey, the Big Ten forces cable providers in that region to carry Big Ten games.

This results in what is now being called "the Big Ten tax" if you have cable you'll pay whether you watch football or not. The New York Yankees have been doing this for years with the YES network, the Univ. of Texas is trying to do the same with the Longhorn Network (LOL!) and BYU tried to do it with BYU-TV (LMFAO!) This brazen move by the most conservative of athletic leagues has sent shockwaves through the college football world. The Big Ten matched the PAC 12 and ACC and then raised the ante from 12 to 14.

The Big 12 still sits at 10 schools and the next move is theirs, they can't afford to get left behind. It's only logical that the Big 12 will raid the Big East (who've already lost Rutgers and will soon lose U.Conn) and swipe Louisville and Cincinnati. That only puts them at 12 schools, which means they'll have to eyeball some other conferences, BYU & Tulsa are a possibility or maybe they lure Florida St. & Clemson away from the ACC? Like I said, the pickin's are getting slim.

The PAC 12 had once entertained the notion of adding four schools from the Big 12, will they revive this effort and up the ante to 16? As Nick Saban predicted, college football is headed towards four super conferences made up of 16 teams each (Big Ten, PAC 12, Big 12, SEC) that's sixty four schools with the money and wherewithal to compete at the highest level of the college game, the rest can go fuck themselves. The ACC could suddenly find itself in a mad scramble to keep up or just simply maintain the status quo. 

The Big East which had gone from being on life support to feeling cocky, is suddenly back on life support. There's an unfounded rumor floating around that Boise St., San Diego St. and BYU are considering returning to the Mountain West Conf. I don't buy it, even if it now makes perfect sense. A San Diego State official affirmed that "Nothing changes, we are committed to the Big East. Boise State officials issued a statement late Monday indicating they have had no recent discussions with the Mountain West and are intent on strengthening the Big East. 

BYU officials have declined to comment on all expansion rumors."As you know, BYU chooses not to respond to conjecture" BYU sports information director Duff Tittle said. BYU left the Mountain West after a failed attempt to blindside the conference by cutting a backdoor deal with the WAC. The resulting fallout left BYU scrambling for a conference affiliation. To their credit they were smart enough to turn down offers from the Big Least and their floating crap game, Ponzi scheme. 

Starting in  2014, The Big East, Mountain West, Sun Belt, the MAC & Conference USA will all be lumped together as part of the new BCS/FBS playoff system. In the eyes of the FBS those five leagues are now on equal footing with the BCS elite. Any advantage gained by joining the Big East or going independent is now negated. BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall gets it, "It's about the same access we had before, the way I see it," Mendenhall said. "We still have to be undefeated, I think, to be considered."

The Coogs are in a quandary,  in order to maintain interest in a football program that no longer plays for a league championship, they must schedule games against more top 25 teams. By playing those teams BYU's chances of going undefeated are diminished. That's a hard sell, you can't schedule 12 powerhouse schools year in and year out, so how do you undo the damage to your reputation brought on by having to play NMSU or Idaho on the road?  "I don't know what to tell you," Mendenhall said. "There's nothing I'd be shocked by with realignment"

Notre Dame couldn't get away with scheduling top twenty schools year in and year out. Thanks to top heavy schedules that are attractive for television but murder on your won-loss record, the Fighting Irish are just now starting to rebound from years of getting their asses handed to them. BYU is not Notre Dame, in order to land an at-large spot in the playoffs, the Cougars (as Bronco said) would need to have one hell of a season. Notre Dame has NBC in its pocket and a pot 'o gold at the end of the rainbow, BYU has BYU-TV, and some secret gold plates. 

I like the Fighting Irish's odds, and make no mistake as an independent that's who BYU will be competing with for an at-large bid (let's not forget Idaho & NMSU.... snicker) As for Boise St. and San Diego St. the real reason they won't renege on their deal with the Big East, is money. Not the money they would make, but the money they would have to pay out to break free. Rest assured that Mike Aresco would sue Boise St. right down to their blue turf. The state of California is broke, so the Aztecs have painted themselves into a corner, there is no turning back.  

Through all this BYU has played the villain,  this entire process started when the PAC 10 and Big 12 passed up BYU. The Cougars quickly made up their minds to jilt the MWC and re-join the WAC in every sport except football. Some rumors had BYU bringing Boise St. & San Diego St. back to the WAC, others said it was UNLV (that's a stretch) , UTEP and New Mexico following BYU back home. It was all bullshit of course, BYU was only looking out for BYU and now they will reap the diminishing returns that they sowed. 

The Mountain West, and you can choose to believe this or not, is a better league without them. Air Force, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State and Wyoming, are all solid schools and though Dan Wetzel (Yahoo Sports) thinks otherwise, nobody other than the MWC wants them. 

This past summer MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said "Our board has determined that we're staying at 10 football-playing institutions, we're going to line up with that formation, but at the same time we'll keep our eyes on the landscape and if there's a need to change, we'll do that."

There's no need for the Mountain West to expand or add schools for any reason other than replacing some school still stupid enough to think that The Big East is a better option. With the playoff format on the horizon, the need is not there. Sorry fellas, but it seems that your spots have already been filled, try The Sun Belt or Conference USA.  Thank You, come again!