Excerpt from USA Today reporter Dan Wolken's article posted this late afternoon.
Formed in 1998 when a group of schools broke off from the Western Athletic Conference, the Mountain West now faces an existential threat under similar circumstances a quarter of a century later.
Within the Mountain West, there was a belief that they would ultimately absorb Washington State and Oregon State, who did not have anywhere else to go as the Pac-12 dissolved. But when those schools could not come to a long-term scheduling agreement with the Mountain West, they managed to lure Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State into the unknown with a promise that they’ll do much better than their $5 million distribution from the Mountain West, and a belief that they won’t have to pay the full boat on their exit from a destabilized, crumbling conference.
Indeed, the heat has now shifted to Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez, whose league could be down to six if Air Force jumps to the AAC and UNLV eventually lands in the Pac-12, which seems likely once it gets in-state political clearance to change conferences without being tied at the hip to Nevada.
In a sane landscape, some people with ties to the Group of Five would like to see the Mountain West remnants come to the negotiating table and perhaps merge with one of the other leagues. But given the egos and self-preservation instincts that drive many of these decisions, the more likely path is that the Mountain West tries to add some regionally congruent schools from C-USA like New Mexico State and UTEP (they have not yet been contacted by the Mountain West, per people with knowledge).
