The Mountain West Conference revenue-wise is in "significantly better shape than it’s ever been," but the gap "remains Grand Canyon-wide between its schools and the Power Five leagues, and the concern is that it will just keep getting wider," according to Tod Leonard of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson yesterday during the conference's football media days said, "There is still a huge disparity and that isn’t going to change. ... It comes down to the resources you have, getting creative and working diligently." Leonard notes the MWC earned nearly $1.3M in "staging its second championship game, with Boise State hosting and beating Fresno State." That was a 15.7% increase over the '13 game, with much of the profit "coming from a title sponsorship sold to Sports Authority." The profit was made "despite mediocre attendance in Boise, where the Broncos drew a season-low crowd of 26,101." Between TV and bowl game revenue created by the CFP, the league distributed a total of $47M to the 12 member schools for '14, "well up" from the $29M the season before. Still, those are "very small numbers compared to the SEC, which announced its own record distribution" of $455.8M -- or $31.2M per school (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 7/30). MWC Deputy Commissioner Bret Gilliland said that the Sports Authority sponsorship for the title game "was a one-year deal," with the conference "looking to find another agreement this season" (DENVER POST, 7/30). Sports Authority "remains in the picture" to return to the game in '15 (IDAHO STATESMAN, 7/30).
COST OF ATTENDANCE UPDATE: Thompson yesterday said that all the schools in the MWC are “offering full cost of attendance to their athletes except New Mexico, UNLV, Nevada and Air Force," the last of which is "treated as an exception since it technically is a service academy and a non-scholarship rule.” He added that schools are “spending an average of $3,813 per student to meet the costs of attendance for the upcoming academic year.” In Salt Lake City, Lya Wodraska notes Boise State “is spending the most at $5,100 while Colorado State is the lowest at $2,400” (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 7/30).
HANG LOOSE: Thompson on Tuesday indicated that there is "no concern the financially challenged" Hawaii athletic department will "have difficulty sustaining its football program." He said, “Hawaii has played football since 1909. They’ve been playing football for an awfully long time. ... The state has helped the athletic department several times just since they’ve been in the Mountain West Conference to sustain a football program. I don’t see that football program falling aside.” Thompson added that there “have not been any discussions on the league easing the travel subsidies” UH pays visiting teams. In Honolulu, Stephen Tsai noted the subsidies range between $150,000-175,000. In joining the MWC as a football-only member in ’12, UH “agreed to pay for the cost of charter flights for visiting teams” (Honolulu STAR-ADVERTISER, 7/29).
