BYU plan to leave Mountain West put on hold

The noise has been deafening about whether Brigham Young stays in the Mountain West Conference or goes independent in football and sends its other sports to a different league.

But those who will make that decision, the people whose opinions count in the matter, have been quiet.

BYU's board of trustees, which includes the Mormon church's presiding officers and other top officials, meets every Thursday morning. But no decisions were announced from this week's meeting.

"Nothing has changed at BYU," Cougars spokesman Duff Tittle said in an e-mail. "As we have said for weeks, we continue to explore all options."

The school must announce by Wednesday if it plans to leave the MWC so it can play an independent schedule in 2011.

The Cougars have been upset about archrival Utah's invitation -- the Utes depart the Mountain West after this academic year -- to what will be called the Pac-12 Conference, and they are concerned about the league's TV contracts.

BYU, probably the MWC's most nationally known football program, is believed to have taken Utah's invitation as a snub. Football coach Bronco Mendenhall said at Mountain West media days that "some conferences don't want a faith-based institution."

The larger issue involves the Mountain West television package. BYU wants greater exposure than what CBS College Sports, Versus and The Mtn. offer, not so much to promote its football team but to spread the Mormon faith.

BYU would like to place some of its games on BYUtv, which reaches 60 million viewers. Some sort of exception for Cougars games to be aired on ESPN also might be in discussion.

"Our league and the commissioner (Craig Thompson) are working with our television contract around the issues of BYU, and we hope BYU will stay in the league," UNLV president Neal Smatresk said.

With BYU's decision-makers remaining silent, speculation about what the Cougars will do has been rampant.

Citing unnamed sources, The Denver Post reported BYU is likely to stay because the alternatives aren't attractive.

BYU thought it had a deal with the Western Athletic Conference to send its nonfootball sports there and play four to six WAC teams a year in football.

That deal fell apart last week when the Mountain West countered by inviting UNR and Fresno State, crippling the WAC and forcing BYU to rethink its plans. The Cougars reportedly have contacted the West Coast Conference, but that would mean forcing the football team to fill out a 12-team schedule without the aid of conference games.

It's also questionable whether going independent would help the Cougars' efforts to make a Bowl Championship Series game.

If BYU stays, the Mountain West is expected to invite Houston to make it a 12-team league and maybe establish a football conference championship game.

If BYU leaves, the Mountain West is expected to work out a partnership with Conference USA, where the two league champions play a postseason game for a potential BCS berth.

The preference for the MWC is BYU stays and in two years the Mountain West, it hopes, becomes a BCS league.

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.