Five Bold Moves for WAC Survival: Fight for BYU, Boise, and Others

More and more details continue to emerge on the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story of two athletic conferences that were forced to eat each other to survive after BYU's intentions were discovered.

The barrage of emails that surfaced this week paints a picture of a WAC that thought it was about to become a sunny Monet, but instead ended up a dark Munch.

The WAC, its members, and to some extent BYU are left frustrated, angry, and wondering what can be done to salvage a potential deal, as well as the flailing conference.

Boldness is the only cure to becoming Sun Belt 2. Regardless of BYU's pending September 1 decision, let's look at five moves the WAC should consider to survive—and possibly even thrive.

Before we get to them, however, I wanted to point out that we witnessed a wonderful display of journalism from Salt Lake Tribune reporter Jay Drew this week. He astutely asked for Utah State athletic director Stan Albrecht's email communications regarding this fiasco (under the Government Records Access Management Act) and uncovered a gold mine.

WAC Move 1: Continue to Push for BYU

At this point, BYU is mulling over three options:

1. Go independent in football, join the WAC in other sports, and figure things out with them.

2. Move to independence in football and join the West Coast Conference for other sports.

3. Remain in the Mountain West Conference and work on independence again between now and next year's September deadline.

Regardless of what BYU chooses, the WAC's No. 1 priority should be continuing to court the Cougars for non-football sports. Subsequent slides will detail some ideas that might make this work.

Adding Texas-San Antonio or North Texas at this point is admitting defeat and becoming a completely irrelevant conference.

WAC Move 2: Turnabout Is Fair Play

The Mountain West Conference got lucky when Nevada and Fresno State agreed to break their agreement with the WAC and join the conference.

The football competition is slightly better, as long as Boise State moves as planned. But other than that, there aren't many compelling reasons why they would do so.

There doesn't appear to be any more money. The MWC is mired in an awful TV deal and will (whether now or later) lose its flagship school in BYU.

UNLV and San Diego State both know this. These two basketball-first schools would make a lot of sense in a reborn WAC, even without Fresno State and Nevada.

Karl Benson should be working like a dog to woo the two MWC schools to a new, better WAC conference, which would have a slew of solid basketball schools with the Rebels, Aztecs, Cougars, and Aggies (Utah State) as a core. 

Then, you look east. Consider bringing in Houston, UTEP, Tulsa, or even New Mexico.

It may seem like a long shot, but the last few weeks have proven nothing is.

But that alone won't do it. Next, you look north...

WAC Move 3: Use the Power of ESPN

A major mistake the Mountain West Conference made (among dozens) was signing a TV deal that was not only awful to begin with, but was for a ridiculous 12 years.

In that time, TV contracts have exploded in value, and the Pac-10 is looking to get about $10-15 million per team when it renegotiates.

It's no secret that the TV deal is one of the primary reasons BYU is leaving and working with ESPN on a deal with greater exposure.

Karl Benson should get the WAC in on the action.

ESPN has had no trouble getting its tentacles into the bowl game system and conference realignment so far. Why not use that?

Leveraging ESPN to land more teams like UNLV, San Diego State, and Houston should be a card in the WAC's hand. Show the current MWC teams a little more money, better exposure on a bona fide TV network, and the chance to line up some good non-conference football games, and you'll get them at the table.

Then, you work on the WAC darling: Boise State...

WAC Move 4: Bring Back the Broncos

With the plethora of emails surfacing this week regarding the WAC/BYU deal, we learned one important thing: ESPN isn't happy to lose Boise State.

The Broncos, long a staple on ESPN weeknights, are slated to join the Mountain West next season.

But could they be convinced to stay?

If the WAC added UNLV and San Diego State to replace Fresno and Nevada, you'd have better TV markets and better recruiting bases.

Then, if Karl Benson and team could land a couple of Texas schools from Conference USA and get to 11 teams, would Boise State stay to be No. 12?

Fans in Boise are already wringing their hands about the scarce publicity the Mountain West TV network brings to a program nationally. Would a solid ESPN deal with a conference championship game and money on the table be enough to convince them?

Again, in this college football climate, anything is possible. But one thing's for sure: Bronco fans are going to be VERY unhappy once they are out of the spotlight and playing in the anonymity of The mtn.

WAC Move 5: Get Your $5 Million

Finally, if you can keep the WAC together in some semblance, you can get your money from the backstabbing, small-market teams you just lost.

If the agreement can hold up in court, either Fresno State or Nevada (whichever left first) is on the hook for $5 million.

Some say they've agreed to split the fee if required to pay, but in a Mountain West Conference that only gives each school a meager $1 million or so in TV money, every bit is great restitution.

You can follow Ryan Teeples @ http://twitter.com/ryanteeples