Mountain West and C-USA Part Ways

[Harry]

The proposed marriage between the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA ended before it got to the altar.

The two conferences agreed in October to merge, but after running into difficulties forming an alliance, they tried to create some sort of working relationship.

That didn't pan out, either.

So Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson, speaking Wednesday morning at the conference football media days at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, said the deal is off - for now at least.

He said several factors played into the split, such as different TV contracts, scheduling issues and C-USA's expansion to three schools in the Eastern time zone.

"The decision was made several months ago - take care of your own," Thompson said. "Our people said, 'We're not really interested in flying to Miami and Charlotte (N.C.) and Norfolk, Va., no offense to those three institutions. Nor were they interested in flying to Fresno (Calif.) and Logan, Utah, etc.

Read more: http://www.lvrj.com/sports/mountain-west-goes-it-alone-163824886.html

[Mean Green 93-98]

"Our people said, 'We're not really interested in flying to Miami and Charlotte (N.C.) and Norfolk, Va., no offense to those three institutions.

Interesting that he singled out three of the new additions, as opposed to saying "flying to Greenville, NC and Huntington, WV." It's pretty clear that this comment wasn't as much about the distance as it was the desirability of associating with FIU, UNC-C, and Old Dominion.

[Harry]

Nice to see the truth finally come out although you could argue that we saw this coming after UTEP stayed put and the eastern additions were made. There are still some quality programs in the Mountain West and I wish them well. The just isn't any business sense to partnering with them right now.