The 2010–13 Mountain West Conference realignment refers to the Mountain West Conference (formally abbreviated as MW since July 2011; also MWC) dealing with several proposed and actual conference expansion and reduction plans among various NCAA conferences and institutions from 2010 to 2013. Moves that involved the MW were part of a much larger NCAA conference realignment in which the MW was one of the more impacted conferences. During this period, four schools that had been members at the beginning of the realignment cycle announced plans to join other conferences, and six schools announced plans to join the conference (five as all-sports members, and one for football only). Two schools—one a pre-2010 member, and the other joining during the cycle—had announced their upcoming departure, but later decided to stay in the MW.
Background In 1996, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) took advantage of the demise of the Southwest Conference (SWC) to expand from 10 members to 16, bringing in new members from the SWC, Big West Conference, and Missouri Valley Conference. This arrangement, however, proved to be less than satisfactory to most of the pre-1996 members, as the conference now spanned from Hawaii to Oklahoma—a distance of about and four time zones.WAC disbanding? – rec.sport.softball | Google Groups. Groups.google.com. As a result, the presidents of five of the pre-1996 members—the United States Air Force Academy (Air Force), Brigham Young University (BYU), Colorado State University, the University of Utah, and the University of Wyoming—met at Denver International Airport in 1998 and decided to form a new league. They invited two fellow pre-1996 members, the University of New Mexico and San Diego State University, plus a 1996 WAC arrival, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), to join them in the new Mountain West Conference, which began play in 1999.
During another major round of realignment in 2005, Texas Christian University (TCU) joined, seeing the MWC as an upgrade from its then-current home of Conference USA (C-USA).
The early-2010s wave of realignment began in 2010, after both the Big Ten Conference and Pacific-10 Conference (now Pac-12) announced plans to expand to 12 members. These moves triggered a cascade of conference moves, with the Mountain West as a significant center of movement.
First moves: Boise State joins, Utah leaves The Mountain West, which had previously announced that their plans for expansion were on hold for a potential expansion including Boise State, announced on June 11, 2010, in advance of a July 1 deadline for WAC teams to withdraw from their conference, that Boise State had joined the conference, and would begin play for the 2011–2012 season. Speculation at the time indicated that the conference would continue to expand if the Big 12 Conference, then the center of realignment activity, dissolved. This development presumably would have boosted the MWC's hopes of securing an automatic bid to college football's lucrative Bowl Championship Series. If Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State had left the Big 12 to join the Pac-10 (either with Texas A&M joining them in the move, or making a separate move to the Southeastern Conference), presumably a fatal blow to the Big 12, the MWC would likely attempt to add any combination (or all) of the remaining Big 12 teams (Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri).
With the decision of the Big 12's Texas and Oklahoma public schools to stay in that conference, the Mountain West then became an expansion target itself, with the Pac-10 reportedly focusing on Utah. On June 16, 2010, ESPN announced that the Pac-10 had extended an invitation to Utah to join the conference and the Utes accepted the following day.
Departure of BYU, addition of Fresno State and Nevada The June 2010 activity proved to be only the beginning of movement in the Mountain West. On August 18, Andy Katz of ESPN.com, citing multiple sources, reported that BYU was considering leaving the MWC to become an independent in football, while its other sportsThis did not include the men's soccer team owned by BYU and bearing the school's name. Before being downgraded to club status after the 2017 season, it competed in the semi-professional Premier Development League (now known as USL League Two) instead of the NCAA. would rejoin the WAC. According to Katz' sources, BYU was stunned that it did not receive an invitation during the earlier conference shuffle, and the school wanted to further differentiate itself from its archrival Utah. More to the point, some saw the school as a potential "Notre Dame of the West". A follow-up report from Katz later that day indicated that such a move was likely, with one source saying, "I'm not sure how it could stop now unless BYU gets nervous." On August 31, the school announced it would indeed leave the MWC in all sports, becoming independent in football, as expected, but would instead join the West Coast Conference in all other sports starting with the 2011–12 academic year.
BYU and Notre Dame share some key similarities. Both are religiously affiliated schools—BYU with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and Notre Dame with the Catholic Church. Both also have their own television affiliations, with BYU owning a cable channel and Notre Dame having its own network deal with NBC. With BYU's move to football independence, its arrangement with the WCC was similar to Notre Dame's then-current status as a non-football member of the Big East Conference (although unlike the Big East, the WCC does not sponsor football). Katz reported that BYU was in discussions with ESPN for its football rights.
These reports were not the first to involve a possible affiliation change by BYU; local media in Utah had reported in 2007 that BYU had long considered going independent in all sports, but ultimately decided against it. Rumors regarding a potential BYU conference change returned in July 2010, when BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said that the school would consider going independent in football in the wake of not being invited in the earlier conference shuffle. He told reporters at that time, "We have a national base. We can go all over the country and people can see that. That is a very important thing to us right now — exposure." The story, bubbling under the surface for several weeks, erupted when hackers reportedly broke into the Twitter account of the athletic department of another MWC member, Colorado State, and said that an announcement of BYU's plans was imminent, leading the Salt Lake Tribune to publish Holmoe's remarks on August 18.
While Katz' first report indicated that such a move by BYU was unlikely unless it gets access to the BCS similar to that of Notre Dame, his follow-up report noted that this was not a major concern for the school, and that BYU was well aware that it would not likely receive a similar arrangement to Notre Dame from the BCS. BYU had to receive approval for its move from the leadership of the LDS Church, which presumably occurred.
In the wake of BYU's potential move, the MWC responded the same day by inviting WAC members Utah State, Fresno State and Nevada to move to the MWC. The MWC also reportedly studied the feasibility of inviting Houston and UTEP, then in Conference USA. By the end of the day, Utah State declined while Fresno State and Nevada accepted the MWC's invitations.
The one stumbling block to the departures of Nevada and Fresno State was a buyout provision agreed to by the remaining WAC schools after Boise State's departure. Under its terms, any school leaving the conference in the next five years must pay a $5 million buyout. All reports indicated that Fresno State had signed the agreement, but reports varied as to whether Nevada had done so. Reports also began to surface that BYU might reconsider leaving the MWC, and ESPN also reported that the West Coast Conference had shown interest in inviting BYU's non-football sports.
The WAC buyout agreement, however, included a number of provisions that were initially considered likely to spark legal action. The agreement specifically states, "In the event that no written agreement [to join the WAC] is executed by BYU on or before Sept. 1, 2010 ... then this resolution is terminated." The agreement reportedly called for only the first school that left the WAC to be penalized. Since Fresno State and Nevada announced their departures at essentially the same time, Fresno State claimed it owed at most half of the $5 million. Nevada claimed it owed nothing. Although not at issue in the context of Fresno State and Nevada, it is also of note that the agreement also allowed any WAC school to leave for a conference that has an automatic BCS berth without penalty, and the WAC had long said that Louisiana Tech (at that time the WAC's geographically easternmost member) would be free to leave the conference if it received an invitation from C-USA (where it would be closer to many of its similarly situated rivals).
Ultimately, the two schools and the WAC came to a settlement, with Fresno State and Nevada agreeing to remain in the conference through the 2011–12 academic year in exchange for a reduced exit fee.
Nevada's move also put them in the same conference as their in-state rivals, the UNLV Rebels, for the first time since the 1995–96 academic year, in which they were both part of the Big West Conference. As such, this move made the Battle for the Fremont Cannon all the more significant.
At that time, Utah State had been rumored to have changed its mind since originally declining its invitation, and once again actively sought acceptance into the Mountain West. The Aggies featured solid programs in both men's and women's basketball, and also fit in well with the MWC's geographic footprint. Had BYU stayed in the MWC, Utah State's presence would have given the Cougars a new in-conference local rival to supplement their historic rivalry with Utah. With BYU's departure confirmed, Utah State would secure the state's media market for the MWC.
Hawaiʻi joins for football, TCU leaves
On November 19, media reports indicated that the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (Hawaiʻi or UH) was nearing a deal to join the MWC for football only, with the remainder of its sports joining the Big West Conference—a league which was once home to the school's women's sports. With respect to the MWC, UH system president M. R. C. Greenwood stated in a news conference, "We have a handshake but we have yet to agree on the details." On December 10, Hawaiʻi accepted football-only membership in the MWC, beginning with the 2012 season. It placed the bulk of its other sports in the Big West.