Mountain West Conference: Part 2

April 23, 2009

According to Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com, Craig Thompson, commissioner of the Mountain West Conference, took the next step in attempting to convince colleagues comprising the nation's BCS conferences of the value in instituting an eight-team collegiate football playoff system in addition to a number of other recommended changes to the current system.

Presenting to a meeting of BCS commissioners convened in Pasadena, California for spring meetings this week, Thompson presented a proposal which not only included the creation of a national playoff system for football at the Division I level, but also called for the replacement of the BCS computer-rankings with a committee charged with selecting and seeding the ten teams which would be selected for participation in post-season playoffs. Maisel notes that the bottom two teams would play in some sort of "BCS Bowl," while the remaining eight would all battle for the opportunity to play for a national championship title.

Thompson explained to media representatives, "Our board feels there are fundamental flaws in the system [as it currently exists]. At what stop-and-go point do you put something on the table? I don't necessarily disagree that it's an uphill challenge. Again our position is, 'Let's start talking.' Change isn't going to come quickly."

Maisel writes the respective commissioners of the BCS conferences in attendance in this week's assembly agreed to "take the proposal back to their respective memberships for their spring meetings" and take the matter up once again when the group met in June in Colorado Springs.

In the meantime, Thompson acknowledges his office has contacted Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who is expected to hold hearings on the BCS system in the near future. Maisel emphasizes, however, that Thompson does not think, as does Utah attorney general Mark Shurtleff, that "the BCS is violating antitrust law."

Interesting to note, the Mountain West Conference remains the only non-BCS member yet to sign a four-year contract on the table with ESPN, to taking effect in the 2010 season. "Thompson," he states, "wanted to hear the feedback from the conferences on its proposals" before electing to enter into agreement with ESPN, a move, Maisel claims, is "largely symbolic" in nature.