BYU independent for football?

The Mountain West still has UNLV, San Diego State and New Mexico, which are always in the mix for a bid. Losing Utah and BYU hurts, but it picks up Nevada, a pretty good basketball program of late. I'm guessing it's still going to be a multiple bid conference.

 

Just for argument's sake, in the past 10 years the MWC has only had a single bid season once (2001) and has had more than two four times, with last year's four the high mark. The WCC has had single bid seasons four times and more than two just once (2008).

During that span the MWC has had bids from teams like Colorado State, Wyoming and Air Force (twice), by no means basketball powers.

By gaining BYU, the WCC more than likely becomes an annual multi-bid league. But the MWC doesn't lose that status because of it.

 

Here and now, the Mountain West might have received more bids, but the WCC has a pretty good track record when it comes to tournament success. Even a team like Santa Clara with Steve Nash made a splash the decade before. Pepperdine made teams sweat out first-round games. Let's look at the top three teams for each league ...

WCC -- Gonzaga, BYU, St. Mary's
MWC -- Nevada, UNLV, New Mexico

I just don't see where the MWC is clearly a better basketball conference than the WCC, especially when a team like San Diego managed to beat UConn a couple years ago, and when the MWC went only 2-4 with no Sweet 16 berths despite four bids last season. The depth in the WCC got a lot better with BYU.

 

I don't think it is clearly better, I actually think it's about the same. But close games aside (Colorado State gave Duke a big scare in 03; Wyoming beat Gonzaga and gave Arizona a scare the year before; UNLV gave Kansas a good run in the Sweet 16 a couple years ago), you throw out Gonzaga's tournament success and I'd say it's a wash. If it's just a matter of getting into the tourney, which is the primary goal anyway, you have a better chance at this time of getting an at-large bid in the MWC than you do in the WCC. Will that change with BYU's move? Maybe. Maybe the WCC gets three now and the MWC gets two. But that's left to be seen.

 

If it's just a matter of getting into the tourney, you USED have a better chance of getting an at-large bid in the MWC than you do in the WCC. Now, I would say it's closer to 50-50. If the WCC got three teams last year, add BYU and make it four in the tournament. I know that's just a one-year snapshot, but it could become the norm.

Also, UNLV gave KU a run in the second round in 2008. Only time the Rebels made it to the Sweet 16 this decade was in 2007.