The chairman of the college presidents in the Mountain West said Monday that an unequivocal agreement has been reached to form a new conference that would begin for the 2013 football season.
The new conference, yet to be named, would have at least 16 schools: the eight current members of the Mountain West — including Air Force, Colorado State and Wyoming — and the remaining members of Conference USA.
“This is not a false start,” Nevada-Las Vegas president Neal Smatresk said Monday by phone of action taken during a meeting Sunday in Dallas. “It’s done and with 100 percent agreement by everyone involved.”
Though scheduling is among details to be worked out, Smatresk said maintaining traditional rivalries will be an objective in the new conference.
“We want to preserve the long-standing rivalries that some of our members have been involved in,” Smatresk said. “This is an exciting time for all of us, and what we have done allows us to help restore some integrity in college athletics.”
Smatresk said he is sure some kind of divisional scheduling format will be adopted to keep traveling by teams to a minimum.
One of the decisions to be made is selecting a commissioner for the new conference. Craig Thompson is the commissioner of the Mountain West and Britton Banowsky leads Conference USA.
Said Thompson: “There are myriad details and moving parts that will be finalized in the weeks and months ahead, but there is positive momentum toward long-term stability and a tremendous opportunity for all involved.”
According to the school presidents, the structure of the new conference likely will include membership of 18 to 24 schools, a championship football game format that includes semifinals, NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) affiliation and regular-season scheduling in divisions.
“It is expected this new conference will deliver a playoff series between the best teams in the Eastern and Western Divisions,” CSU athletic director Jack Graham said. “We will be able to preserve all of our long-standing rivalries such as Wyoming and the Air Force Academy.”
Other schools involved are New Mexico, UNLV, Fresno State, Hawaii (football only), Nevada, Alabama- Birmingham, East Carolina, Marshall, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Texas- El Paso, Tulane and Tulsa. In the next six months, school presidents and chancellors will meet to determine how to operate the new conference.
“College athletics has seen a great deal of change these last several months,” Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman said in a statement. “By aligning ourselves with this group of universities, we feel that it provides us greater stability moving forward.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
