After the 2013 college football season, members of the BCS will gather and decide on membership for the 2014 season and beyond based on regular season results from 2008-11.
The Mountain West, as you’re all probably very aware, has been beefing up its membership over the past couple of years to try and gain a seventh automatic bid (or, sixth, depending on what happens with the Big East). So far, it’s been a game of give and take. The Mountain West gets Boise State and a handful of others from the WAC; it loses TCU to the Big East (and ultimately the Big 12), Utah to the Pac-12 and BYU to football independence.
But the MWC has met the performance criteria required by the BCS for AQ status. As a result, the MWC has applied for an exemption from the BCS for the 2012-13 seasons, according to Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman.
If you’re curious, the MWC met the standards by:
- Finishing among the top five FBS conferences in Average Ranking of Highest-Ranked Team
- Finishing among the top seven FBS conferences in Average Conference Ranking
- Having its Top 25 Performance Ranking be equal to or greater than 33.3 percent of the conference with the highest Top 25 Performance Ranking, the SEC.
That exemption will be voted upon by the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee. A timetable for that vote has not yet been set.
An exemption by the BCS isn’t unprecedented. For context, the BCS granted a waiver to the Big East for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.
But even though the MWC met the performance requirements, getting BCS membership is still going to be a challenge. TCU, as was mentioned above, will leave the conference after this season. Boise State and San Diego State will leave after the 2012 season. That’s two of the conference’s best teams.
How the Mountain West’s football-only merger with Conference USA will affect the voting by the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee also remains to be seen.