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.
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.