Interesting week out West for the WAC and the MWC.
- BYU wants to be a National Independent in football which will allow them to leverage BYU-TV which has 60 million subscribers world wide. BYU would also be able to keep all of its TV and Bowl revenue. It leaks out that BYU wants to move all their other sports programs over to the WAC and guarantee the league 4-6 football games per year.
- The Mountain West retaliates by inviting Utah State, Nevada and Fresno State.
- Nevada and Fresno State accept and Utah State declines.
- BYU is forced to reconsider the move because the WAC has been severely weakened.
- The Big West and WCC says they are interested in BYU as a non football member.
- The WAC now consists of Idaho, San Jose, Utah State, New Mexico State, Hawaii, and Louisiana Tech.
- The WAC needs to find two find at least two new members for football and at least one other non football member if BYU joins.
- Utah State is reportedly negotiating to join the Mountain West as its twelfth member.
- Hawaii is now looking at the option of playing as an independent and joining the WCC for sports other than football.
- Louisiana Tech is looking at C-USA and the Sunbelt.
Full Sports Candidates: Montana, Montana State, Portland State, Weber State, Northern Arizona, North Texas, Texas San Antonio, Texas State, UC Davis, Sacramento State, and Cal Poly.
Non Football Candidates: Brigham Young, Denver, Pacific, and Seattle U.
What will be interesting to watch in coming weeks is if the league can resurrect itself by raiding the Big Sky, Southland, and Sunbelt conferences for new members.
Can the WAC put together a viable league of football and non football members to still be attractive enough for BYU to make the move? The WAC isn't as attractive of a league to join and the other options - the West Coast and Big West - don't have FBS teams to help with the scheduling challenge BYU would face as an independent.