More Expansion Talk: Boise State to Join the Mountain West?

This topic comes up at least once a year, and I wrote on expansion about a year ago. This new talk comes from ESPN blogger Graham Watson and from Boise radio host Paul J. Schneider, who said, "Boise State president Bob Kustra received an invitation from the Mountain West to join the league."

The Mountain West and Commissioner Craig Thompson deny this report, and throw a jab at Boise State in the process.

“My personal opinion is that they probably wouldn’t be 12-0,” Thompson said. “Take nothing away from Boise State, but I don’t know that they would go undefeated against the top four teams that are vying for the conference championship.”

Way to go Commish. Toss a backhanded compliment to a team the league wants to bolster their football presence and attempt to gain an automatic bid for a BCS game. No need to go into details—just go and read my post last year on this topic, because not much has changed.

The only thing is that the MWC will not discuss expansion until this summer because of a halt on any expansion talk, but I would not be surprised if this conversation took place about Boise joining the MWC.

Why would Boise State want to join the Mountain West? Currently they are far and away the best team in the league nearly every year and win conference titles and have better exposure from the WAC taking over the MWC slots for ESPN games. Plus being in a tougher league would make it more difficult to go to a BCS bowl every few years.

On the other side, the money that the Mountain West gets from their TV deal with CBS College Sports is more than ESPN, and the geographical fit is there, as well as the chance to be in a higher profile league.

If Boise ever does join the MWC, then the league should just go to 12 teams and try to get Fresno State, and then either Tulsa or Houston, so that the coaches have more access to Texas and Northern California for recruiting, and to increase their TV viewers.