Mountain West Basketball: Examining 8 potential candidates for expansion
By Joey Loose
Ever more apparent this week, conference realignment is very real and could soon reconfigure the world of collegiate sports. With football at the forefront of many of these realignments, clearly, these moves play a major effect on college basketball. We saw Oklahoma and Texas bolt the Big 12 for the SEC and now we’ve seen how the Big 12 will look to replace them.
The Big 12 looks to get back to twelve teams by adding Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF from the AAC and BYU, a WCC team in basketball that is currently independent in football. However, these movements merely set into the motion the next set of dominoes of realignment. When these moves are made official, it will leave the WCC looking for another new second fiddle to Gonzaga. More importantly, it leaves the AAC down three teams, and it’s four if you include Connecticut’s departure for the Big East last year.
When you look at what remains in the AAC, it’s clear that the league will have to make a few additions in the coming weeks and months. We’ve already examined a few directions that conference could go in, but it certainly gets the ball rolling towards realignment affecting other conferences.
For example, it’s very possible that Boise State and San Diego State (among others) could be poached by a league like the AAC, if not another conference. What would the Mountain West do in that situation? Would it be wise for the conference to be proactive instead of adopting a wait-and-see approach?
With the potential for big change on the horizon, it’s time to look at expansion in the Mountain West. There are several current teams that could find greener pastures after this latest round of conference realignment, but that won’t alter our hunt.
We’re going to look for the best schools to add to the current Mountain West, keeping in mind that they might also be picking up the slack left behind by Boise State in football or San Diego State in basketball. With a few exceptions, these are football schools, most of which at the FBS level, and programs that add something of value to the framework and high level of skill in the Mountain West.
Let’s jump right into these potential additions, knowing that one way or another it’s very likely the Mountain West will be forced to expand their ranks.