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This was discussed: A three-league merger
Published: 9/20/2011 9:52 AM
Last Modified: 9/20/2011 9:52 AM

Conferences that are thinking of “only” expanding to 16 teams are thinking small.

The Tulsa World’s Eric Bailey wrote a story today in which Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said his league is considering a football-only partnership with Conference USA. The Mountain West would allegedly add two new members and tag-team with C-USA for a 24-team endeavor.

And it could have been bigger.

A source with intel on conference realignment issues told the Tulsa World that the Mountain West, C-USA and the WAC had talks in January regarding a possible cooperative arrangement that would include all three leagues and feature three divisions populated by teams from coast-to-beyond-the-coast (Hawaii).

The source said one of the leagues was not ready to embrace the idea, but it has apparently been dusted off for further discussion, minus one of the leagues that was sitting at the table.

Incidentally, Thompson said there are no football leagues with 16 or 24 members -- yet. “I think it’s very creative and it’s what we should be doing,” he said.

Does that qualify as irony? The Mountain West was created because eight schools seceded from the 16-team WAC. A 16-team league was once considered too big to survive. Now a 16-or-more league is being called “creative.” People with short memories will probably agree.


Reader Comments 2 Total
Blue&Gold (last year)
The WAC was ahead of itself and the "pot" was not as big as it is now. Now the revenues generated by smaller conferences are huge and the revenue that could be generated by a inter-conference championship game could be astronomical. It would also help the 2 leagues cooperatively schedule non-conference games and would warrant an AQ status for the winner of that championship game. If this were to come about, TCU might remain, then you add Boise, Tulsa, Houston, SMU, Nevada, and Fresno to the mix and you have a pretty solid foundation of teams with success over the past 6-10 years to build on. Seeing as how Kansas and K-State are likely to be left out, adding them to the MWC to get to 12 would strengthen the regional appeal. It would also likely add a strong basketball appeal and could result in a MWC/C-USA challenge like you see with the Big 10/ACC. Can you imagine a KU/Memphis opener for that? Tulsa vs UNLV. UTEP vs. San Diego St or K-State. Very appealing for a number of reason.
But What Do I Know? (last year)
Don't forget the NL West and NFC Central.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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