Conference Realignment: Why The MWC Is Fine Without Utah and BYU

The Mountain West Conference (MWC) was going fairly strong at the beginning of this Summer.

Halfway through the BCS evaluation it looked as if the MWC was going to qualify as the seventh BCS conference in 2012.

As long as they did not completely fall apart, the MWC was going to finally get the respect for which it had been fighting.

At the beginning of July, the MWC made the smart move of adding BCS buster Boise State University.

The Broncos beefed up the conference resume and surely strengthened the BCS call. Less than a week later, it sounded like the conference shuffle was just beginning.

Colorado announced that they were leaving the Big 12 to join the Pac-10.

Colorado was the first piece of a hopeful super-conference, the Pac-16. The Pac-10 invited Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech. The conference would then be divided into two eight-team divisions.

Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Baylor, and Iowa State would be left out of the conference realignment.

This is significant because the MWC was close to scoop up whatever remaining schools it wanted.

Also, since the Big 12 would have been destroyed, the MWC would have replaced the conference as a BCS conference.

...Then Texas and the other Big 12 teams stayed and the MWC started to fall apart.

The "Pac-11" needed one more member in order to qualify for a conference championship game.

Who did they call? The University of Utah. The MWC took a blow but ended up equal after the BSU move.

Then BYU felt left out and decided to go the independent route...not before the additions of Nevada and Fresno State to the MWC.

Both of these schools were crucial for the MWC to attain BCS status after the evaluation in 2012.

It would take a miracle for the remaining schools to qualify the conference.

However, this past Summer, we took a sneak peek at what is to come. The super-conference era.

There is still a high chance that the Pac-12, Big Ten, and SEC expand. The MWC is safe for now.

The Big East and Big 12 are the targeted conferences for snatching prime schools. Who will be there to pick up the scraps and become a BCS conference by default?

The Mountain West Conference.