Nevada and Fresno State accept MWC invite

[Danm1983]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5474774

MWC is trying to make a case for BYU to stay and not go independent by basically taking the three best WAC teams and bringing them over.

MWC is losing Utah, but now will be gaining Boise State, Fresno State, and Nevada. MWC will now have a NorCal foothold with FSU to help with the SoCal foothold they have in San Diego State. They now have the whole state of Nevada covered, since they already have UNLV - now making NV-UNLV a great conference/rivalry game for the future.

If BYU stays, the MWC will have 11 teams, and they'll likely look to grab one more from somewhere, perhaps LA Tech, Houston, UTEP, or Tulsa. If BYU goes, the MWC could be happy with ten teams, or may go looking for two teams to round out a Mountain-12 type of conference.

Not good news for the BE though, IMO. If the MWC snatches up another team and builds to 12, and with the Big 12 possibly looking to snatch up 1 or 2 teams to get back to 12, the pickins for the BE get slimmer and slimmer...though geographically the pickins were already slim.

Insert speculative MWC division setup here:

MWC North - Boise State, Wyoming, Fresno State, Nevada, Colorado State (BYU if they stay, Tulsa?)

MWC South - TCU, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Air Force (Houston or UTEP, SMU?)

[2000bull]

http://www.themwc.com/genrel/081810aac.html

The Mountain West Conference announced tonight that California State University, Fresno and the University of Nevada, Reno have accepted invitations to join the MWC.

[TyBull]

Nevada follows Fresno St.'s lead, accepts MWC invite

Posted by John Taylor on August 18, 2010 9:58 PM ET

In what should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone, the second of two schools offered official invitations to the Mountain West Conference has responded in the affirmative.

http://bleacherreport.com/tb/b5raw

Citing multiple unnamed sources, the Reno Gazette-Journal is reporting that Nevada has accepted the Mountain West's invitation and will leave the WAC following the 2010-2011 school year.

A press release issued by the Mountain West this evening stated that commissioner Craig Thompson will conduct a teleconference at 11:15 ET, presumably to discuss the additions of the two schools and, possibly, to address the status of BYU.

With the addition of Fresno State, Nevada and Boise State -- along with the definite loss of Utah and the potential loss of BYU -- the MWC would become a ten-team league: the three new schools, plus current members Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, TCU, UNLV and Wyoming.

Of course, that's if BYU ultimately decides to leave the conference and strike out on its own in football.  If they don't -- which seems unlikely at this point but, given how this offseason has gone, cannot be ruled out -- the MWC would suddenly have 11 teams, one school away from being able to hold a conference title game.

In such a circumstance, would they look at add another program to get to an even dozen?  We don't know if this scenario is what TCU head coach Gary Patterson was referring to this evening, but it's certainly could be what he's hinting at.

"Let's see what happens in the next two weeks before you make any judgments, see what happens on the national landscape. Things I know that maybe you don't know."

Hopefully, following commissioner Thompson's teleconference, things will become a little bit clearer regarding Round Two of The Great Conference Upheaval of 2010.  Well, one can hope at least.

[2000bull]

California State University, Fresno and the University of Nevada, Reno have accepted invitations to join the MWC.

per MWC website, so in essence they've added 4 included boise

[usf97]

4 or 3? Boise State, Nevada and Fresno State. Who would the 4th be?

I don't know what Patterson at TCU is talking about but adding those 3 and losing Utah and BYU does not make this an auto-qualifier league. There will no longer be these arguments about whether the Big East or MWC is better because now you go from having 3 good schools to having just two.

You can almost say, BSU just added TCU to it's typical WAC schedule because it all looks the same once you get past the first few teams. I mean who of us can differentiate between San Jose State, New Mexico, Nevada, UNLV, SDSU, New Mexico State.

I think if TCU really wants to keep it's momentum going it needs to see how realistic joining the Big East would be. Or just throw in the towel and go back to CUSA....it's no worse than this new MWC and the travel would be much better.

[2000bull]

4 or 3? Boise State, Nevada and Fresno State. Who would the 4th be?

I don't know what Patterson at TCU is talking about but adding those 3 and losing Utah and BYU does not make this an auto-qualifier league. There will no longer be these arguments about whether the Big East or MWC is better because now you go from having 3 good schools to having just two.

You can almost say, BSU just added TCU to it's typical WAC schedule because it all looks the same once you get past the first few teams. I mean who of us can differentiate between San Jose State, New Mexico, Nevada, UNLV, SDSU, New Mexico State.

I think if TCU really wants to keep it's momentum going it needs to see how realistic joining the Big East would be. Or just throw in the towel and go back to CUSA....it's no worse than this new MWC and the travel would be much better.

3, my bad. the wording thru me off 

[The Great 8]

If the MWC keeps BYU they're a pretty good looking conference.

BSU, TCU, BYU, Fresno St. are a good top 4.

[Apis Bull]

Fresno hasn't been that great lately and I'm interested to see how Boise State does playing in a tougher conference.

[smazza]

big east does nothing

not even a peep

[South_Florida_Flip]

big east does nothing

not even a peep

And you know this how?

What are they supposed to do?