So BYU reacts to its Pac-10 snub by taking its ball and leaving the MWC to go…independent. Well, not entirely. They’re back to the old WAC for everything but football, but in football, they’re going to try to go it alone. This is actually not a bad move for them, as they can play a bunch of WAC-level teams, add in a few mildly improved competitors, and have a Boise State-type situation almost every year where they can keep themselves in the BCS picture with a minimum of effort.
I can’t think Boise is thrilled with how things worked out – the two biggest-ticket teams in the MWC have flown the coop, leaving them in a conference that’s not that much better than what they left. However, the MWC tonight has backfilled their empties with Fresno State and Nevada, two programs that while hardly national powers are still teams you don’t want to find on your Homecoming docket. Add them to a conference with Boise State and TCU, plus the don’t-look-past-them of Air Force and the not-to-be-taken-lightly of Colorado State and San Diego State – hell’s bells, the new-look Mountain West is at least as legit as the Big East or ACC, and far more so than the forthcoming Texas Ten, when it comes time to hand out BCS berths.
This is a good move. It sends BYU out to play in the traffic, which is fine by me, and reorganizes what’s left of the MWC and WAC into one pretty damn capable football conference. The flip side is that the WAC no longer has enough teams to exist as a football league – they have six, and the rules say you need eight. I fully expect a daylight raid on Conference USA any minute now, which will in turn raid the Sun Belt, which will in turn try to make some sort of arrangement (does Georgia State need a conference affiliation?) and POP goes the weasel. The part of the weasel, as always, will be played by the BCS.