When the Pac-12 decided to move to an all-conference game schedule, the Mountain West lost 13 nonconference games. Pac-12 schools don’t offer payouts on the same scale as the Big Ten, but the payouts are still valuable. What’s more is that the payouts are not certain to be made.
The fact that the Big Ten moved to a conference-only game schedule has caused a lot of concern and anxiety throughout the Mid-American Conference, given that MAC schools are regular nonconference game partners for Big Ten schools. There is uncertainty in the college football industry about the Big Ten’s commitment to honoring game payments to the MAC schools it has left in the cold. One would expect some sort of agreement to emerge eventually, but it is hardly a guarantee that MAC schools will receive the full payouts they originally expected. Any appreciable gap between a full payout and a reduced payout would make a significant dent in the budgets of MAC schools.
The Mountain West isn’t in the exact same position as the smaller MAC, but the MW isn’t a juggernaut conference, either. Like the MAC, it needs nonconference game checks. Meanwhile, as the league tries to adjust to the Pac-12’s decision to abandon nonconference games, the Mountain West has to scramble for other ways of filling dates and recouping at least a portion of the revenues it thought it would receive this fall.
In a story at the Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune, Davis Potter talked to Wyoming Athletic Director Tom Burman, who is dealing with the fallout from losing a game with Pac-12 school Utah.
This is the money quote from Burman:
“The Group of Fives need to support each other. If the Group of Five determines that it’s in the best interest of all of us to just play a conference schedule, I will support that. But if you look at what the Big Ten did to the (Mid-American Conference), in my opinion, that’s financial ruin for the MAC schools. And I hope the Big Ten does something to make them whole. But we’ve got to kind of stick together and help each other.”
Ideas Burman is pursuing include, but are not limited to:
- Playing “nonconference” conference games. Remember that last year, North Carolina and Wake Forest agreed to play a “nonconference” ACC game. The game didn’t count in the ACC standings. It was simply a chance for the two schools to play each other, since they rarely do. UNC is in the ACC’s Coastal Division, while nearby Wake — in the state of North Carolina — is in the Atlantic. Mountain West schools not on the conference schedule could play a “nonconference” game.
- Playing rivals twice. This flows from option No. 1 above. Wyoming’s biggest rival is Colorado State. The two teams play the Border War game for the Bronze Boot. Wyoming is at least considering the possibility (how strongly, we don’t know) of playing one conference game and a second “nonconference” game against Colorado State. Schools are trying to move the chess pieces around the board.
Keep in mind that the Mountain West is waiting to see what the Big 12, ACC, and SEC do. The league has some nonconference games scheduled with schools from those conferences. We have to wait for that piece of the puzzle to emerge.
In the meantime, all options are on the table for Mountain West programs.