Mountain West decides against expansion amid expected AAC growth

[Coach Andy Mac]

“Every week, there’s some interest from some particular party,” Thompson said. “Everyone is trying to get to that spot where they feel the most comfortable, and certainly our institutions had explorations in places other than the Mountain West conference. That’s just the nature of college athletics in 2021.

“There were discussions. You look at the full parameter, all the different metrics from attendance, budget, facilities, recruiting, geography. There are so many metrics you can look at. We probably displayed something like 50 or 60 various charts throughout the last couple weeks and months.”

read more:  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/aztecs/story/2021-10-20/mountain-west-conference-realignment-craig-thompson-expansion-aac-confererence-usa%3f_amp=true

[VideoEagle]

I found this part of the article interesting, "“I’ll let you read between the lines,” Thompson said. “We had weekly, if not bi-weekly, if not quite daily conversations, with both our partners, CBS and Fox, and we got great input from them as to the media value of particular institutions and markets.” 

I'm sure the AAC was doing the same thing with their expansion committee. We have the answer as to why there are six members joining - it takes all six of the new schools to yield enough eyeballs to make the media contracts work.

That also shows why it's unlikely a defection of just one or two schools from the AAC to the MWC is very unlikely for the short term - there isn't a pair schools that will move the media dollars enough to matter. 

[RBP79]

Time will tell but they got played....

The bottom line...MONEY.

 

[MeanGreenTexan]

7 minutes ago, RBP79 said:

Time will tell but they got played....

The bottom line...MONEY.

 

Right.   I think they just willfully landlocked themselves in the Mountain & Pacific Time Zones forever.   Can't imagine any other teams that would go out there except for UTEP/NMSU/TXSt/LATech, and let's be honest, none of those are going to bring what the MWC needs.   

Honestly, I bet they're playing the long game and waiting for the Big12 to break up after their current media deal expires, then make a play for TXTech, TCU (welcome back!), OKSt, & KSSt.