Mountain West eyes NCAA bid

Ever since the eight Western Athletic Conference schools opted to leave and form their own league last May, there has been speculation about what the Mountain West Conference would look like when it came to basketball.

The image is starting to take shape. The champion of the breakaway eight is on track to receive an automatic bid to the 2000 NCAA Tournament. And it will probably come at the WAC's expense.

Look for a lot of discussion at next week's NCAA Convention in San Antonio as the picture is put into focus.

"We should know a lot more after the convention," Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said. "We're going to be talking to a lot of people about a lot of things and basketball will be a big part of it."

One of the major criteria for a conference to receive one of the 30 automatics to the Big Dance is that at least six schools must have been together as a league for at least five years. The Mountain West exceeds that with seven schools (BYU, Utah, Colorado State, San Diego State, Air Force, Wyoming and New Mexico) having been long-standing partners in the old WAC.

Using the Big 12 as an example, the Mountain West apparently was able to convince the NCAA it is worthy of an exemption. When the Big Eight took part of the Southwestern Conference to become the Big 12, it still had the basic components of its league intact and the NCAA didn't remove its automatic bid.

The remaining WAC doesn't meet the six-for-five criterion. Only three of the eight schools (Hawaii, UTEP and Fresno State) have been together for five years.

The final decision won't come until May when the NCAA basketball committee meets. But Thompson believes his league will get an automatic bid.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," Thompson said from the league's new office in Colorado Springs. "For us, it's important to have it, because it portrays a positive image and it shows this is a bona fide, to-be-contended-with Division I league."

It also will pave the way for less resistance to a Mountain West postseason tournament. The league was going to have a three-day hoopfest regardless, though it has not been determined where the Mountain West tourney will be played.

Las Vegas would seem to be the natural location. Many of the Mountain West schools that competed in the last two WAC tournaments gave the Thomas & Mack Center and the city high marks.

However, San Diego may want to get involved with the postseason tournament. San Diego State's two-year-old Cox Arena seats 12,414 and the city is a major destination resort which might be attractive to fans throughout the new league.

Thompson said he has not addressed a site for basketball as he is still trying to get the Mountain West's football house in order. He said getting a football supervisor of officials as well as securing bowl tie-ins for football are priorities.

"We'll look at basketball officials after the season," he said. "We won't hire a supervisor for basketball until we're done with this year."

The plan will be to lure as many top officials from the WAC, Pac-10, Big West and Big 12 as possible to work Mountain West games. Both Thompson and WAC commissioner Karl Benson don't see that as a problem.

"I would expect that officials who work WAC games will work the Mountain West," Benson said. "You may have some referees who list one conference as their primary league but work other leagues."

As for the WAC losing its automatic bid, Benson wasn't overly concerned. He believes it would be temporary at worst.

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