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Mountain West, Conference USA to merge in 2013-14
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Realignment has shaken college athletics, leaving leagues such as the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA to wonder and worry what the future holds.
Both leagues took a step Monday to re-establish some control, agreeing to form up to a 24-school conference that will stretch from the East Coast to Hawaii in football starting in the 2013-14 academic year and cover nearly the width of the Lower 48 in other sports.
Under the current arrangement, 16 football teams would make up the new conference and 15 schools in other sports. Hawaii joins in football only.
The schools involved are the following:
■ UNLV, Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico and Wyoming, which all compete in the Mountain West.
■ Alabama-Birmingham, East Carolina, Marshall, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Texas-El Paso, Tulane and Tulsa, which all compete in Conference USA.
■ Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii, which all compete in the Western Athletic Conference but are set to join the Mountain West in 2012.
UNLV President Neal Smatresk, who also serves as chairman of the Mountain West's board of directors, was the driving force behind the merger.
"We have been frustrated with the lack of stability of our conference," Smatresk said. "Members of both conferences have been siphoned off in this national athletic conference plundering movement. We need to stabilize our conferences and form an entity we think recommits to the high values of student athletic competition. So we ... are going to take a high-road approach to how college athletics are run."
Smatresk said many details are still being worked out, and a formal agreement likely will be reached fairly soon.
Among those details:
■ Television partners. Many Mountain West insiders and fans have complained about a national TV deal that has provided what they viewed as too little exposure. Some new national TV package is expected, which could spell the end of the more regionally targeted The Mtn.
■ Scheduling. UNLV basketball fans shouldn't worry about annual home-and-home series with Marshall and Southern Mississippi. Though there probably will be some crossover games, the schedules will be more region-based, probably using two divisions that mirror the current conference setups.
■ Postseason scheduling. Bowl contracts and conference tournaments will have to be ironed out. One intriguing possibility is a four-team conference football playoff. "It would be our intention to have a two-tiered playoff system," Smatresk said.
■ Leadership. Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson or his C-USA counterpart, Britton Banowsky, probably will oversee the new conference. A rumor has spread that Thompson will get the job, but Smatresk and UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood said no decision has been reached.
There also are myriad other issues, such as whether to expand and what to call the new league, that also must be decided.
The Mountain West also is dealing with the uncertainty of whether Boise State, which was scheduled to start playing football in the Big East Conference in 2013 and rejoin the Western Athletic Conference in other sports, will depart this year instead. If the Broncos leave, Smatresk said they would owe the Mountain West a $9 million exit fee.
Boise State's apparent wavering is a major example of why both conferences are combining, even if it creates an easy target on Twitter.
"I think it's a great move," Livengood said. "It's looking to the future. It makes sense. We have to work through a number of details, but it's very positive and exciting. It needed to be done, and it needed to be done now."
UNLV men's basketball coach Dave Rice said he completely backed Smatresk and Livengood.
"We're excited about the direction," Rice said. "We've enjoyed our association with the Mountain West Conference and are excited about the future of Runnin' Rebel basketball. I've always said and I've always believed that UNLV transcends conference."
Baseball coach Tim Chambers said he liked the idea of adding some quality schools, especially because the Mountain West will field only five teams this season and six next year.
"We're dwindling away a little bit," Chambers said. "Playing teams in a conference six times apiece is tough, and this year we've got 30 conference games. I think that's really tough, too.
"I welcome Tulane and Rice and Southern Miss, and those are some really good baseball programs I think will in turn give us more than just one (NCAA regional) bid."
Football coach Bobby Hauck, citing the university's preference that Smatresk be the spokesman on this issue, opted not to comment.
Even as Smatresk touted the virtues of uniting with C-USA, he condemned the forces that drove the two parties to this point.
"We feel that what's been going on in college athletics is all driven by money and not by the right principles," Smatresk said. "We are committing ourselves to providing our athletes a stable environment so that we do the things we're supposed to do, which is have great competition in a fair way with reasonable cost controls."
Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.
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starting in the 2013-14 *academic* year
You mean the "BIG Sports" year.
BIG Sports totally corrupts the purported mission (applied science teaching) of public higher education. In reality, BIG Sports *is* the mission. Abolish BIG Sports and popular support for jock schools (like UNLV) would wane. The Legislature might then conclude that UNLV was not worth the expense and vote to DEFUND it.
Smatresk's job is to grow TV revenues from BIG Sports. The way he does that is by enforicing a policy wherein (often out-of-state) jocks who couldn't care less about education are given admission PREFERENCES and basketweaving majors (like "Interdisciplinary") are maintained so as to give those clods academic cover.
So long as he can continue to successfully run that scam, he gets to collect his $400K commission (salary).
The "academic" year. Really.
WILL EVERYONE BE HAPPY WHEN THE CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME IS PLAYED ELSEWHERE ??? MORE MONEY AND NO HOME ADVANTAGE.----- BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT.
CUSA has always been a sick joke. It is where the big boys call when they want to schedule their Homecoming games. With the defections they have had they are even more deplorable. The same can readily be said of the Mountain West. Combining two piles of trash does not produce anything more than one larger pile.
@VEGASCALLING DO you know where UNLV stands with graduating athletes? We are in the top 20%. There goes your argument. The UNLV President is a great guy and actually cares for Vegas and the school.
But, to have Craig Thompson as the commissioner?
Thompson should have been fired by the MTN. West members for his poor management of the conference. He let his main tier schools walk away which has led to the demise of the MTN. West Conference. Fans have watched the MTN. West erode and implode under Thompson.
Only fools or crooked individuals would allow this man to be commissioner.
UNLV thinks they are making a commitment to academics by making it moderately difficult to gain admission. But once there, UNLV is nothing more than 4 years of junior college. Been there, done that.
Sorry UNLV students and grads, but that is the reality.
UNLV President Neal SmatresK is guy is joke. Worry about the performance of academics. UNLV is a tier 3 university, until yu make a commitment to academics, your a glorified communicate college with a basketball program. Unlv football now will just have more teams to lose to.
Dear Aztec Fan, sorry that Utah's program left you high and dry. Afterall it was Utah that carried the MWC for dozens of years with Rick Majerus in Basketball and then as the original BCS busters bringing your school millions of dollars for raising their play and becoming a BCS program by beating two BCS team in two BCS bowls.. Yea, we left you high and dry, ha! How about pulling your weight down there in San Diego. Congrats on your ONE year as a BCS football team, that is all it will be, then what? GO UTES!
Zzzzzzzzz...
@ Billy Vegas
You are exactly right.
And I think Smatresk's attitude is hilarious. As a Rebel fan, I would want to leave this conference if a better opportunity came along. 'High road' - LOL. It does suck to think what the conference would have been if BYU and Utah stuck around and if TCU, BSU, and SDSU would all be part of it. Then add in the other teams (Nevada, UH, Fresno, maybe USU) - that would have been a great conference. Oh well.
One thing - the basketball conference tournament better still be played here. It would be IDIOTIC to move it elsewhere.