As super conferences form, UNLV must go on the offensive

The Mountain West Conference today needs to fashion itself as more hippopotamus than poodle. It needs to think, breathe, promote and act in an aggressive manner. It's go time.

Super conferences are coming, more inevitable than the NFL and sky-high television ratings. Things are happening fast.

It could be four conferences of 16 teams or five of 16. It could be 64 teams or 80. It could be a Pac-16, a Big Ten 16, an ACC-Big East 16, an SEC 16 and … a Mountain West-Conference USA 16?

There could be leagues with 20 teams.

It's going to get nuts.

"I believe it's not a matter of if but when," UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood said of super conferences. "I don't necessarily like it, but whether a couple more dominoes fall tomorrow or next week or three weeks from now, it's happening.

"My biggest concern right now is that the Mountain West has a seat at the table. But at the end of the day, for me, it has to be about UNLV and what is best for it."

There are 122 teams at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, far too many when you consider the difference in revenue streams and budgets from top to bottom are that of Tiger Woods' new $60 million mansion and a broom closet.

It's easy to identify programs in the WAC and Sun Belt and Conference USA and Mid-American that have no business continuing to bleed money with zero hope of ever existing among the haves of college football, a harsh reality of where things have been and are going.

Some feel that way about the Rebels, and you can certainly make an argument based on performance. No major conference awoke today thinking UNLV is a must-have on the annual football schedule, unless it's looking for more of those guaranteed season-opening wins that go for $500,000.

But here's the difference between the Rebels and some others struggling financially: When conference expansion is bantered about and presidents and athletic directors have secret meetings, one's market size tends to lead discussions.

For this, UNLV and San Diego State are the Mountain West teams with the most to offer when it comes to what conferences covet (television sets).

Craig Thompson needed four long sentences of a statement on Wednesday to say what he could have in four words: We are moving forward.

The Mountain West commissioner hinted at the truth that his league is exploring every potential option as conferences across the country prepare to shake, rattle and roll over those that can't match up.

Its primary answer should be to revisit a Mountain West-Conference USA union, to combine the best of both and form a league strong enough to be involved in any future playoff talk for football.

Maybe the Mountain West and C-USA decide to form a football only league and have the remaining sports stay in their respective leagues. Whatever. You can find 16 football programs between the two leagues worth merging, whether other sports come or not.

However things go for the Mountain West, this is certain: A horrible television contract must be improved. It's by far the league's biggest nemesis, both from an exposure and financial standpoint, as the NCAA sits on the verge of super conference formations.

Those at Mountain West schools have been constant in publicly supporting their television package, but be assured most privately think it lacking in countless ways. It's bad on every front.

I believe teaming with C-USA -- either by a forming an entirely new league or offering a separate one just for football -- gives the Mountain West its best chance at sitting at the table of which Livengood speaks.

This is not 1996, when the WAC expanded to 16 teams and weakened the overall product. These are different times. Major changes within the NCAA structure concerning football are soon to become reality, and large memberships are on the horizon.

Baylor is blocking a Texas A&M move from the Big 12 to the SEC. You know Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany won't sit idly by and not make a play for other big-name schools. Texas is said in some circles to be looking at the ACC as hard as it is the Pac-12.

Everyone is looking out for themselves.

The Mountain West needs to keep up and adopt an overly aggressive approach in the coming weeks and months.

Poodles are cute, but this is no time to act like one.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.