Mountain West Basketball: Examining 8 potential candidates for expansion
By Joey Loose
Western Kentucky
The word “west” is right there in the name of the conference. It’s also in the name of our next school to consider. However, Western Kentucky would be way further east than the rest of the conference, even being east of the Mississippi River. This can be a good or bad thing for the conference; perhaps the league wants to extend its footprint further east (which could open the doors to a number of additional teams being on the MWC’s radar).
First and foremost, athletics at Western Kentucky have been pretty solid in recent years, even if not at a championship level. The basketball program has been solid for decades, even if they haven’t sniffed the Big Dance since 2013. Rick Stansbury has done a great job making this one of the best programs in Conference USA. On the football side, the Hilltoppers have only been playing at the FBS level since 2009 but have been a very solid program and have produced three different P5 head coaches in the process.
If the Mountain West is good with moving eastwards, Western Kentucky is a fantastic choice that already has FBS football and has done great work on the basketball court as well. Consider also that you’d be bringing in Big Red, one of the sport’s most intriguing mascots. In all seriousness, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the conference move in this direction and Western Kentucky certainly isn’t as far away as a number of other options.