There are so many ways to go with the many Pac-10 expansion rumors, but what happens if the Pac-10 takes Utah and the fallout leaves BYU still in the Mountain West. The best case scenario for BYU in a sans Utah Mountain West would be for Commissioner Craig Thompson to invite Boise State to help ensure the MWC gains an auto bid to the BCS.
The way the time line should work is that first the Mountain West will invite Boise State this summer and have them begin conference play in 2011. The 2011 season would be the last year of the BCS evaluation period which means all of Boise State's rankings would be included with the rest of the Mountain West even though they were in the WAC. This to date would have four Mountain West teams in the top 25 final BCS standings, and most likely at least three in the final top 25 for the following two years since Boise would now be included. That should be enough for the Mountain West to be the seventh league with an auto bid to the BCS, even if Utah leaves.
Now, the Pac-10 will most likely extend an invite to Utah in the summer of 2011 and in this scenario Colorado goes as well -- unless the Pac-10 jumps the gun and hands out invitations this summer. Utah would still finish year four of four of the BCS evaluation period with the Mountain West and not effect the MWC's rankings during the current BCS evaluation period. So, the Mountain West would have a BCS bid for the next few years without Utah, but with the addition of Boise State -- who would essentially be a swap for Utah -- the Mountain West could still keep that BCS auto bid for the foreseeable future with BYU, Boise State, and TCU performing well on the field.
This scenario nothing much would change for BYU except that the Mountain West would be a BCS league and earn the rewards that come with that. The only downside is that with three good teams and not four the MWC will still need to perform well to keep their BCS status for more then just one cycle.
Leave a comment