My friend Mike Bahr made a great point in his recent blog about how the Pac-10 will become the Pac-12. The area he thought that the Pac would pull from was from the WAC. I'd have to say thought that the MWC is the place where 2 teams will come from to join the Pac-10/12. It has been rumored and talked about a lot here in Utah that the teams that will leave the conference are Utah and Colorado.

The reason for this is that the Pac 10 chairman has said that if they bring teams into the conference it has to raise the income/TV market by 20% of what they currently make.

Colorado State is the largest TV market team out of the MWC and the WAC. While you can say BYU is because of their Mormon/LDS connection around the country, they are looking for that market in the West alone. That leaves Colorado State at the top.

The other team that makes sense to grab is Utah, which is the biggest drawing rated team in Utah as well as proving they can hang with the BCS group.

Now if that happens it leaves a huge void in the MWC with one of it's top 3 teams (BYU/TCU up there with Utah) and Colorado state now out of the conference.

Would the MWC then look to take teams from the WAC to fill those spots? Would BYU be close behind them and leave for a larger conference as well? The Big 12 has been linked to BYU before this season. If Utah and Colorado left for the WAC, BYU would surely follow a year or two later.

Would it be Colorado leaving the MWC because of the ratings and Boise State from the WAC to be the strong team that they want? Would the Pac-10 want Boise Stare or Utah more?

I find it most interesting that the MWC is an offshoot of the WAC and yet has far succeeded the WAC since it's formation in advancing teams that can actually win BCS games as well as raising it's respect level nationally above the WAC's.

The real question comes down to who does the Pac-10 really want. Do they want teams from the WAC or MWC?

The MWC chairman is constantly blasted in Utah for his lack of pushing the conference forward despite the solid play of it's top three teams over the past five years. The fact that the MWC has one of the worst TV deals in the history of sports is one of the biggest problems. The fact that those TV stations are still not in HD is another big issue for those of us trying to view a game that looks as if it was shot on a handheld picked up from Best Buy circa 1998. BYU and Utah are both rumored to not be happy with this situation and want out soon as possible.


The most likely scenario is that Utah and Colorado both leave for the Pac-10/12, leaving two spots that need to be filled, one of which comes from Boise State. The other spot could be left open for a future team to fill or taken by a team such as Utah State, a team that is up and coming in football and is hoping to start a rivalry with BYU on the same level as Utah's rivalry. If this scenario happens, it is almost guaranteed that BYU will bolt for the Big-12 soon as they open their doors to BYU.

That leaves the WAC with two open spots that will need to be filled. The WAC should be able to pick up teams to fill these two spots but they might be outside of the West just as Louisiana State is currently. The conferences that the WAC would most likely pull are Conference USA and the Sun Belt Conference. The Big Sky Conference could also add some possibilities.

These three conferences could also be areas that the Mountain West pulls from if they are unable to pull who they want from the WAC.

Whatever the scenario, teams will be moving over the next year or two and it will be interesting to watch the pieces fall.