Thursday, May 8, 2003 | 10:29 a.m.
Commissioner Craig Thompson called published reports that the Mountain West Conference was close to expanding to nine or 10 teams "absolutely misleading."
CBS SportsLine.com reported Wednesday that the topic of expansion will be seriously discussed at the MWC meetings June 1-3 in Carlsbad, Calif. It also speculated that the MWC was closer to expanding than the Atlantic Coast Conference, which has made headlines in recent days about the possibility of Miami and fellow Big East Conference powers Syracuse, Boston College and Virginia Tech coming aboard to form a potential 12-team mega-conference.
The story, quoting an unnamed source, speculated that Fresno State and possibly Hawaii could be headed to the MWC.
Thompson's reaction?
"There's no way we're even close to talking about expansion," he said. "I've never spoken to either Fresno State or Hawaii about it."
When the eight Mountain West teams broke away from the then 16-team WAC in 1998, league presidents agreed to not even broach the possibility of expansion for four years. Thompson said that the conference recently extended that moratorium until 2004.
"If (the MWC presidents) wanted a 12-team conference, they could have done that four years ago," Thompson said. "We've been focused on doing everything we can to make this eight-team conference work."
Thompson said that the topic of expansion has come up at some of the league's football meetings but "there's been no serious talk. And something like expansion would be done at the presidential level."
Which makes next month's meeting of MWC meetings an unlikely venue for serious expansion talks.
"Right now we're in the process of getting four new presidents at our eight schools," Thompson said. "I just talked with the new BYU president, Cecil Samuelson, for the first time the other day. Air Force's new president, Lt. Gen. John Rosa, is involved in the Iraq conflict and won't be on campus until June. New Mexico is in negotiations with a new president. And Colorado State has two candidates to replace their president and hopes to have one hired by the end of May. So four of our eight presidents could walk in this room right now and I wouldn't know even what they looked like, much less what their feelings are for expansion at this time."
Attempts by the Sun to reach UNLV president Dr. Carol Harter on the subject were unsuccessful.
Thompson believes that a Miami-led switch to the ACC might actually help the Mountain West Conference in its quest for an elusive BCS bowl berth.
"That would certainly hurt the Big East Conference," Thompson said. "It's possible that could open up the sixth spot in the BCS. I mean, if you lose Miami and some of those other schools, how can the Big East continue to get an automatic BCS bid? Who will they invite? Rutgers?"
There have also been discussions in recent weeks about the BCS possibly adding a fifth bowl game that would give conferences such as the Mountain West, WAC, Conference USA and the MAC better access to the potential $13 million payday that goes with an invitation to one of the four BCS bowl games --- Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta. And no changes are likely to take effect until 2006 when current TV contracts expire.
Still, if perennial national championship contender Miami decides to switch to the ACC, things could get interesting in a hurry.
"If the ACC thing happens, the dominos could begin to fall," Fresno State athletic director Scott Johnson predicted. "You might see some Big East teams merge with Conference USA or go into the Big Ten. That's kind of how it happens, when the TV contract is up or if one league decides to start adding. That's when everything starts to roll."
Until then?
"It makes for some interesting stories," Johnson said.
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