Mountain West Turns Tables With Additions Of Fresno State, Unr

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Mountain West turns tables with additions of Fresno State, UNR

"BYU is a member of the Mountain West Conference," he said. "They participated in several conference calls with our board of directors in the past 48 hours, including today. "I don't know BYU's intentions. They are a full member, a voting member, a participating member of the Mountain West Conference as we have this call tonight."

BYU has a couple of options now, and Thompson said there is no deadline in place for one of the league's charter members to make a decision.

The school could still strive for football independence and align its other programs with another conference, such as possibly the West Coast Conference. Another route could be deciding to stick with the Mountain West, which might force Thompson's hand in making another bold move. He reiterated several times Wednesday night that the league's ultimate goal is to become a Bowl Championship Series automatic qualifier.

A 10-team league moving forward without BYU might not get the MWC there, but keeping BYU and adding a 12th school — for example, a program such as Houston — could help the conference over that hump and into the national spotlight, though the addition of Fresno State and UNR keeps the league's football profile strong and very respectable.

"There is no immediate push, rush, concern to get to 12 (members) and look at a (conference championship football) game," Thompson safely said. "It may happen, it may not happen.

"This is an ongoing process, that we talk about memberships and the configuration of the conference at just about every board meeting in some form or fashion. Some (board members) are still interested in 12 members, not all board members are at that position."

When reached by the Sun on Wednesday evening, UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood indicated his gut feeling was that the Mountain West would grow.

"I don't have a crystal ball and I know (UNLV president Neal Smatresk) and I have talked a lot about this," Livengood said. "I know there's a scenario where we're not done expanding. There's a lot of things that could happen with other schools, and etc.

"I wouldn't see us totally done at 10 teams."