The way I see it, the MWC is our best fit. We would be consistently competitive in that conference, which has now added Boise State to its lineup of tcu, Utah, and BYU (all strong football programs). In basketball, UNLV, Utah, and BYU are solid programs and adding KSU and possibly ku would be outstanding. This is a conference that is up and coming and should be able to negotiate a solid TV deal with Fox Sports (whose base of viewers is all West of the Mississippi). Consider the following markets the MWC would have with the addition of ku and KSU:
1.) A share of the Dallas market (thanks to tcu)
2.) San Diego (thanks to San Diego State)
3.) Salt Lake City (Utah and BYU)
4.) Part of the Denver market (CSU)
5.) Part of Kansas City
6.) Las Vegas
Also consider that the following smaller markets would also be part of this:
1.) Wichita (about 500,000 people in the metro area)
2.) Boise, ID (almost 600,000 in the metro)
3.) Colorado Springs (about 600,000 in its metro)
4.) Entire state of Wyoming (about 550,000)
In total, this new conference would have a footprint into a total television market of about 19,260,000 people. This also assumes that the Mountain West would stop at 12 teams. One could easily see the conference make a move toward this "magic" number of 16, adding schools such as Fresno St, San Jose St, Nevada, and Idaho. As for Utah, I think utah will stick with the MWC precisely because it is moving toward becoming an automatic qualifier, and should get it with the demise of the Big XII. We bring a lot to the table for the MWC and we need to embrace them while we have the chance, because if we pass to try to preserve the Big XII, 5 years from now when (assuming it stays together for now) OU, Texas, et al decide they've had enough, no one will be talking to us then, because decisions have already been made. In short, the MWC gives us a chance to continue to be in a BCS conference and be competitive, whereas in the Big XII, we risk being a non-factor in decisions.
BTW: the television market of the Big XII is about 27,000,000 homes, certainly larger than MWC would be, but consider that under the current membership of 10 schools, that market share has dropped to about 22.5 million, not much more than what the MWC would be. If we lose A&M also, then that viewership drops to less than 17 million. There is no way we can keep our BCS automatic qualifier status with only 10 schools. Also, when the Pac-16 decides to work out a TV deal with ABC/ESPN, Fox will be without a college football conference to broadcast and a market share of 19 million viewers would be enticing to Fox who wants to compete with ABC/ESPN for television broadcasts. The MWC wants us, and we fit in with them. Let's go!
