As if the Mountain West Conference didn’t have enough problems of its own this season between late or overtime losses at Tennessee, Virginia, Syracuse and Boston College and a new television network still unavailable in three major MWC cities, external factors don’t bode well for the league long term.
This is the third season of a four-year evaluation period to determine future automatic qualifying leagues for Bowl Championship Series games. Criteria include the ranking of the top team in a league each year, relative strength of the league and top-25 finishes in the BCS standings.
Until this season, the Big East and MWC had been neck and neck for the sixth spot. The MWC finished ahead of the Big East in 2004 on the strength of Utah’s breakout year, and the places reversed last season. Now the MWC is seventh in the Sagarin conference ratings and the Big East is ranked third. Also, three Big East schools are in the BCS top 12 and there is no MWC team in the top 25.
If the stars align perfectly for Brigham Young by running the table, the Cougars could end up in the BCS top 25 before it’s all over. But it’s difficult to imagine at least one if not two among West Virginia, Louisville or Rutgers finishing higher, though the Big East played a weak nonconference schedule.
Adding a little more insult to the MWC, the lone non-BCS school in the top 25 is No. 14 Boise State, which joined the Western Athletic Conference when the MWC schools left the WAC. If any school from a non-automatic qualifying league makes the fifth BCS bowl this year, Boise State appears the lock.
“There’s no doubt (I’m concerned),” MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said Tuesday. “After two years our top team fared favorably and overall strength of league fared favorably. When you look at this year’s standings, the Big East with three and we have no team breaking into the top 25, this will be a very important year for the Mountain West, and certainly the Big East stepped out.”
Thompson won’t guess whether the BCS will remain with six automatic qualifying leagues – whoever they might be – reduce to five or expand from six.
Internet streaming
For possibly the first time this season, Thompson made no mention on the MWC weekly conference call of progress in negotiations to expand The Mtn. to satellite providers or cable distributors in San Diego, Las Vegas and Fort Worth, Texas.
However, with the addition of Saturday’s games on The Mtn. – San Diego State at Wyoming (1 p.m.) and BYU at Colorado State (4:30 p.m.) – national online video streaming has become a weekly event. Plans are announced one week at a time, pending resolution of the television agreement. Sign-up is available at cstvppv.com/football. The price is $14.95 a game in advance, making the $10 monthly upgrade on Comcast for The Mtn. a bargain.
No time to rest
Usually by this time of the season, teams welcome a bye week to heal some injuries while coaches are itching to hit the recruiting road.
Not New Mexico. The Lobos (5-4, 3-2) are riding a three-game winning streak on late come- from-behind triumphs, and no one wants to cool off.
“I wish we were playing this week,” New Mexico coach Rocky Long said. “The kids have confidence that as long as they are in the game, they can make enough plays to have a chance to win. It’s a resilient young team. I hate to give them some time off.”
He certainly doesn’t want to ice kicker Kenny Byrd, who has been instrumental in the Lobos’ win streak. Byrd, a senior from Albuquerque, is the MWC special-teams player of the week after kicking a 33-yard field goal to beat CSU 20-19 in Fort Collins as time expired. The Lobos trailed 19-10 after three quarters.
Staff writer Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
