Gonzaga Basketball: Why moving to the Mountain West is a bad idea

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LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 11: A general view of a hashtag is seen before the championship game between the Colorado State Rams and the Nevada Wolf Pack in the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament at the Thomas /

How will a move will impact the Mountain West?

There was a time where it appeared that the Mountain West wasn’t interested in bring schools who didn’t have a football program. But after what looks like a third year in a row of having just one team making the NCAA Tournament, beggars can’t be choosers. Although the league as a whole is having a better year top to near-bottom, it’s still a one-bid league if Nevada wins the auto-bid.

The WCC has been a bit better, with usually either BYU or Saint Mary’s getting an at-large bid along with Gonzaga. But after that, it’s gets dim, with six of the 10 teams ranked in the top 200 of the RPI (three in the top 100). The Mountain West is better, with eight of 11 getting below 200 and four getting within 100. Add the Zags, (and possibly BYU) and you have a solid conference.

But let’s not make this into the second coming of the Pac-12. Even if Gonzaga and BYU arrive, it’ll still depend on the performance of the league as a whole in the non-conference that determines the number of bids. That’s been the problem of the MWC in the past few years, with an awful record against top-50 teams combined.

This won’t become a 4-5 bid league, simply because the new scheduling by the power conferences have limited the high-level games teams in the Mountain West would have. It also raises the potential of road upsets for the Zags in places like Laramie, Colorado State (altitude always causes problems), and San Diego State like earlier in the year.

These wouldn’t be bad losses, but certainly those that would affect seeding. The teams in the WCC are improving (admittedly not at the pace the Zags want) and recruiting certainly hasn’t been affected to the point of any concern. So while the Mountain West is an upgrade, it’s not the end all be all.