The announced merger of the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA to form a 22-team college football league sounds a little crazy, but it could work.
Reacting to the latest round of conference realignments, the commissioners of the MWC and C-USA made the decision to join forces in an effort to stave off irrelevancy.
With the major BCS conferences becoming even stronger following Pittsburgh’s and Syracuse’s move to the ACC, Texas A&M joining the SEC and TCU accepting an invitation to join the Big 12, the Mountain West and Conference USA had little choice to make such a bold move in an attempt to earn automatic qualifying status.
The proposed merger remains in limbo though because several teams from both league’s could join the fledgling Big East Conference.
Mountain West members Boise State and Air Force and current C-USA members Central Florida, Houston and SMU are expected to receive invitations to join the Big East.
However, the Big East is only interested in Boise State and Air Force joining the league as football members while Central Florida, Houston and SMU are being invited as all sports members.
Boise State and Air Force are reportedly cool to the idea of becoming football only members of the Big East, especially since that conference’s automatic qualifying status could be in jeopardy.
If all of the current members from the MWC and C-USA remain and the merger goes through, the newly formed 22-team college football league would be the most unique conference in the nation.
The conference would have teams stretching from the east coast of the United States all the way to Hawaii.
With the departure of BYU this season and TCU set to join the Big 12 in 2012, the MWC extended an invitation to Hawaii as a football only member and added Fresno State and UNLV as all sports members beginning in 2012.
Geographically, the potential conference would certainly be a logistical nightmare. But there are enough attractive television markets within the proposed league to make the conference a viable property.
The key of course is whether Boise State decides to remain in the MWC and allow the merger to go through.
If the Broncos jump to the Big East or one of the other major BCS conference’s, the potential league would lose the one school that could earn it automatic qualifying status.
But thanks to the bungling Big East only wanting Boise State and Air Force as football only members, the new football conference could come to fruition.
And if it does, the next step is securing automatic qualifying status from the BCS.
If that comes to pass, then the new conference will be in an excellent position to negotiate television deals that will provide each of the league’s members with much needed revenue.
Clearly, there are a lot of “ifs” at this juncture. But this proposed merger has to go through in order for the schools in the MWC and C-USA to survive.
If the Mountain West and Conference USA can’t make this happen, all of the schools within those leagues are literally going to be left out in the cold.
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