Considering casual fans and some national media members — still confuse Western Athletic Conference schools with the Mountain West, it’s difficult to believe a decade has passed since eight schools decided to bolt the WAC.
A 16-school marriage of inconvenience forced by the conference land grabs of the mid-1990s was doomed by its girth. Members received one-sixteenth of the pie representing league revenue, and the pie wasn’t all that big. Legendary BYU football coach LaVell Edwards referred to the pre-expansion WAC as “before we let in half the free world.”
The presidents of Colorado State, Air Force, Wyoming, BYU and Utah met at DIA on Memorial Day weekend in 1998. Invitations immediately were extended to New Mexico, San Diego State and relative WAC newcomer UNLV.
A few permutations later, the MWC and WAC now each have nine schools. Only Hawaii and Fresno State remain in the WAC from the pre-16 expansion.
Both leagues lost out on the old WAC’s Holiday/Cotton Bowl agreement. Now they play each other in the New Mexico Bowl.
How the rival leagues stack up
A scorecard of their separate paths starting in the fall of 1999:
Head to head football: MWC leads: 33-27
BCS bowls: WAC leads 2-1
Vs. BCS opponents: MWC — 42-87 WAC — 34-147
Current bowl agreements: MWC — 4 WAC — 3
No. 1 NFL draft picks: MWC — 1 (Utah’s Alex Smith) WAC — 1 (Fresno State’s David Carr)
NFL first-round draft picks: MWC 4, WAC 4
TV package: MWC — CBS College Sports/Versus/The Mtn., 10 years/$120 million total. WAC — ESPN, two years remaining, $1 million per year.
National championships: MWC — 3 (BYU women’s cross country) WAC — 2 (Rice, Fresno State baseball)
Deepest NCAA men’s basketball tournament appearances: MWC — Sweet 16 (Utah, UNLV) WAC — Elite Eight (Tulsa)
Deepest NCAA women’s basketball tournament appearances: MWC — Elite Eight (Utah) WAC — Sweet 16 (Louisiana Tech)
NBA first-round draft picks: MWC 5, WAC 4
Highest finish, AP Top 25 football poll: MWC — 8 (Utah, No. 4, 2004) WAC — 7 (Boise State, No. 5, 2006)
Bowl record: MWC 18-13 WAC 14-16
