All quiet on the Wasatch Front

It remains quiet so far from BYU, which has led to a certain amount of feverish speculation on the part of the local media over there. Ultimately, nobody really knows what BYU is going to do - perhaps not even BYU. Will it join the WCC with Gonzaga and St. Mary's? Will it prop up the remainder of the WAC? Will it stay in the MWC for one more year? Will it get a better TV deal and stay in the MWC for more than a year? Will it bring Utah State over as a twelfth team if it stays, or will it make the MWC twist in the wind with eleven schools? Or - and this is my personal favorite in the "feverish speculation" sweepstakes - will BYU grab a few schools from the MWC and the WAC and build yet another mid-major conference, leaving everyone else to twist in the wind?

Don't count that last one out. They've done it before.

Meanwhile, information is beginning to come out on how we reached this point in the first place. As several sources (including the RGJ) have reported, the Salt Lake Tribune recently received via an open records request a series of e-mails between Utah State and several other parties that sketches out nicely how all of this went down. The Idaho Statesman, meanwhile, dug into them a little further to isolate Boise State's role in this - apparently, Boise State's President stepped up to invite Nevada, Fresno State, and possibly even Utah State into the Mountain West. Meanwhile, Karl Benson attempted to talk UNLV into joining the WAC, which led to this e-mail (Salt Lake Tribune):

Scott,

Thought I would give you an update. Shortly after you and I spoke this morning, Nevada and Fresno were issued an invite to the MWC. Our President met with our chancellor and we are giving this opportunity serious thought. It would mean that Nevada and UNLV would finally be in the same conference.
We were hopeful that when Karl met with UNLV, they would consider joining the WAC. They were not interested.
As you know, our board has a resolution that was put in place a few years ago that states that both state schools would work towards a common conference. So much has happened in the past 6 hours -- I wanted you to know what has been going on as I told you that I would keep you posted.

Cary S. Groth
Director of Athletics
University of Nevada

What this means is that, as soon as the MWC issued the invite, we were practically duty-bound to accept it - our loyalty to our state will always be greater than our loyalty to an athletic conference. That's just a given. Of course, one of the ramifications of this is that, if UNLV accepted the WAC invite, the WAC would've ended up stronger than ever and the MWC would've lied in tatters.

So, if you're looking for someone to blame for the near-extinction of the WAC, blame the source of all evil - UNLV! It's easy, fun, and safe for the whole family!