Mountain West, Conference USA Working On Merger Agreement

The Mountain West Conference and Conference USA “are expected to move closer to some sort of merger or working agreement,” and presidents from each league were meeting in Dallas yesterday to discuss their options, according to Mark Anderson of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. The conferences agreed in mid-October “to merge in football only, but momentum soon picked up to move toward a unification in all sports.” But which course to pursue “is expected to be debated.” There also is the possibility “of creating more of a working relationship than an outright merger, but indications don't point to that scenario as likely.” With both leagues “losing schools to the Big East Conference, each side feels an urgency to put a plan in place by 2013.” For the MWC, forging a merger with C-USA “is more about survival than an effort to become” an automatic qualifying BCS league. Without a merger, the MWC “would be down to eight football members -- seven in other sports -- by 2013 and Conference USA would have nine.” Scheduling and postseason issues “would need to be ironed out, and a new TV contract would be negotiated, possibly bringing an end to The Mtn.” There also is the “basic question of who runs the league” (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 1/15). C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said, “Right now the focus of the conversation continues to be on a football consolidation, but it could certainly evolve into something more significant involving all sports. So, it is really too early to suggest for sure what format it will take” (HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER, 1/15).

CHANGES TO TV DEALS: CBSSPORTS.com’s Dennis Dodd reported one option being considered is to "dissolve" C-USA and the MWC before forming a new league. The move “could have ramifications on current TV deals and put the new ‘Big Country’ -- let's call it -- in line ahead of the Big East for a new TV rights deal.” Beginning in '13, the newly formed conference would “have 17 teams,” but there has “been discussion whether to stay at that number or possibly add a team or teams.” The new league could “be football only, all sports or some other consolidation.” With the “assumed end of automatic qualifying conferences in the BCS, the rush is on to simply become as attractive as possible to TV rightsholders.” One of the “advantages of a combined MWC/CUSA league is strength in numbers” (CBSSPORTS.com, 1/15).