Sunday, June 01, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Mountain West expansion may hinge on ACC

If Miami leaves Big East, dominoes could tumble in many college conferences

By STEVE CARP
REVIEW-JOURNAL

There's a storm gathering in college athletics, but nobody knows when it will strike or the extent of damage it will inflict.

From coast to coast, university presidents and conference commissioners are bracing for a shakeup not seen for dcades.

As Miami ponders whether to leave the Big East Conference for the expanding Atlantic Coast Conference, the dominoes in this high-stakes game are poised to tumble.

But how many will fall, and in which directions?

At the moment, nobody is certain of the impact if Miami, along with Syracuse and Boston College, bolts the Big East in pursuit of more revenue to form a 12-team ACC. But college administrators across the nation are making contingency plans.

A few months ago, the Mountain West Conference's spring meeting this week in Carlsbad, Calif., was shaping up to be little more than a three-day housekeeping session and a chance for MWC bigwigs to get in some golf. But because of the Miami-ACC situation, the meetings could result in big changes for the four-year-old MWC, of which UNLV is one of eight members.

"It's all about the BCS," Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said, referring to the Bowl Championship Series, which controls college football's Division I-A national championship. "What could affect the Mountain West is the BCS status."

The MWC is not in the current lineup for an annual guaranteed spot in the BCS. Those are locked in with the Big Ten, Big East, ACC, Southeastern, Big 12 and Pacific 10 conferences, which hoard millions of dollars generated by the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta bowls.

The general consensus among college administrators is that adding Miami, Syracuse and Boston College to the ACC would knock the Big East out of the BCS picture, creating a chance for the Mountain West, Western Athletic Conference or Conference USA to grab that spot and the accompanying windfall.

But WAC commissioner Karl Benson doesn't believe the potential demise of the Big East in football automatically means the BCS would reach out to another conference.

"Why would they?" Benson asked rhetorically. "They can do fine with five leagues and Notre Dame instead of six.

"I've said before that the BCS is not going to give the WAC, the Mountain West or Conference USA an automatic bid. What I'd like to see is a little more equity in how the at-large berths are determined. Make it a little fairer than (having to be) a top-six team to get in."

But if the Big East loses Miami, Syracuse and Boston College, will it attempt to rebuild its football influence by picking off teams from Conference USA, adding them to members Pittsburgh, Connecticut, West Virginia, Virginia Tech and Rutgers? Or would it look to become a basketball superconference, building on its core of non-football schools such as St. John's, Providence, Georgetown, Villanova and Seton Hall? Potential basketball expansion targets include Marquette, DePaul and Saint Louis of Conference USA, and Dayton, St. Joseph's and Xavier of the Atlantic 10.

Atlantic 10 commissioner Linda Bruno declines to speculate on what might happen, but is keeping a close watch on the Big East situation.

"We have a plan and we'll be ready," Bruno said. "We're a basketball conference and we hope to stay together. We don't want to raid other conferences."

Raiding schools could be back en vogue in the West. The Mountain West, formed in 1999 when eight schools broke away from the 16-team WAC, might be looking to expand by dipping into the WAC.

Fresno State and Hawaii have long been assumed to be interested in joining the MWC, and Thompson issues seemingly annual denials that those schools are coming aboard. But now UNR and Boise State are also being mentioned as expansion candidates.

The Mountain West's moratorium on expansion, put in place when the league was founded, runs through 2004, but this week the university presidents could vote to lift it and put expansion on the front burner.

UNR athletic director Chris Ault said the Mountain West hasn't asked the Wolf Pack to join, but said his school would look long and hard at accepting such an invitation.

"It would be great to renew the rivalry with UNLV like we had in the Big West in the 1990s," Ault said. "There's a geographic footprint that would fit nicely with us and UNLV giving the Mountain West two Nevada teams.

"But no one has talked to us officially. We're like everyone else, waiting to see what happens with the ACC."

When asked about an accelerated timetable regarding expansion, Thompson said, "Anything is possible. Our focus is totally on positioning ourselves that if the Big East folds, we're prepared to move forward.

"I've talked to the BCS people and they say they're fine with (the MWC being an eight-team league). They say it's about quality, not quantity."

In that case, Benson said, the WAC should be considered first.

"We've had the highest-ranked non-BCS team the last two years," Benson said, referring to Fresno State in 2001 and Boise State in 2002. "We've shown the current WAC is on par, if not better, than the Mountain West in football."

Benson said his conference is not averse to expansion either.

"We've rebuilt the WAC into a credible conference," Benson said. "If Conference USA goes under and there was a team available in the Central time zone like a Houston, Tulane or TCU, we would certainly be interested."

Inclusion in the BCS might be vital to the long-term survival of the Mountain West. Its $48 million television contract with ABC and ESPN expires in 2006, and so far the networks haven't indicated they'll shell out more in a future deal.

If the MWC expands and gets shut out of the BCS, the schools would essentially be back in the situation they tried to escape in the WAC -- that is, the same small pie being divided into even more slices.

Thompson said he agrees the Mountain West must not base expansion strictly on making itself more attractive to the BCS.

"Let's say we bring in two schools, he said. "Will it guarantee our being in the BCS in place of the Big East? I don't know that it does.

"What cachet do these new teams bring? That's what the BCS people will ask. So I don't know that expansion is the answer as far as the BCS is concerned."

But the Mountain West might consider expansion for other reasons. For the MWC to maintain its Division I status, all eight schools must fulfill new NCAA criteria for football home attendance and the number of sports it offers.

By 2004, schools must average at least 15,000 in football attendance. Wyoming is in danger of falling short, having averaged slightly over 13,000 at War Memorial Stadium last year.

Also, San Diego State offers only five men's sports, one short of the conference minimum, while Colorado State needs to add one sport to meet the MWC's required combined minimum of 16 men's and women's sports.

If the Aztecs and Rams don't add a sport and the Cowboys don't meet the attendance minimum, it could cost the league its Division I status. By adding one or more WAC schools, the MWC could ensure that status and ease scheduling headaches in football, though basketball scheduling problems might be created.

UNLV is in compliance on both issues. It averaged 27,582 in football attendance last season and the school offers six conference men's sports and 10 women's sports. Men's soccer competes in a separate league (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation).

Utah athletic director Chris Hill said unless the Division I status issue forces the league's hand, he prefers for the Mountain West to remain as is.

"We're pretty solid the way we are, so I don't know that we need to change right now," Hill said. "I'd like to see what shakes out around the country before we do anything. I think we have the luxury of being able to afford to do that."

Hill said a domino he doesn't expect to fall is one with his school's logo on it, dismissing rumors that the Pac-10 is courting Utah as an expansion candidate.

"I don't think the Pac-10 is in an expansion mode right now," he said. "We're happy where we are and I like our league. We are what we are -- a very good league in the West."

But Benson is convinced the dominoes will fall. It's just a matter of when and where.

"I think if the ACC thing goes through, it will certainly affect three or four conferences," he said. "Whether it reaches all the way out to the West remains to be seen."