Hair Thompson rides again

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/aztecs/sd-sp-gonzaga-mountain-west-sdsu-20180228-story.html



I can't imagine being in the WCC if Gonzaga were to move over to the MWC. I think there are still some "ifs" out there and they might just be rattling their saber. I wish Hair Thompson would retire or something. I just don't have confidence in him related to BYU.

My feeling on the matter is that I'd rather play basketball in the MWC than the WCC, especially if Gonzaga moved over. Top to bottom, looking over the last five years, the only teams that have carried the WCC are Gonzaga, SMC and BYU. Over that same time, the MWC has had various teams.



Conference RPI's

2017-18

WCC 13

MWC 9



2016-17

WCC 9

MWC 10



2015-16

WCC 14

MWC 12



2014-15

WCC 11

MWC 9



2013-14

WCC 9

MWC 10



Not a lot of spread, but you pull BYU and Gonzaga out of the WCC and those numbers change radically for both conferences.



It's hard to not want, if we're not going to be in a P5 conference, to enjoy playing in front of several thousand more fans than the token amounts of the WCC. I don't want to bag on any of the WCC teams. They've been classy and I respect them, but on the other hand, to be left by Gonzaga in the WCC--that's not at all desirable.

Mountain West Conference has approached Gonzaga about joining

https://www.thescore.com/ncaab/news/1495514

It's rare that the WCC ranks higher that MWC. The MWC is a better basketball conference.



Not sure I see Gonzaga leaving the WCC.

If Gonzaga leaves, BYU can't stay.

If Gonzaga left, BYU still couldn't win the WCC. No point in staying if you can't even win a super weak league.

hawkwing wrote:

If Gonzaga left, BYU still couldn't win the WCC. No point in staying if you can't even win a super weak league.

Painful to say but true. This year we’d lose to SDSU, BSU, Reno at a minimum. Middle of the pack at best.

BoiseBYU wrote:

If Gonzaga left, BYU still couldn't win the WCC. No point in staying if you can't even win a super weak league.

Painful to say but true. This year we’d lose to SDSU, BSU, Reno at a minimum. Middle of the pack at best.

Sadly, what he said was that BYU'd lose the WCC even if the Zags left. And he's right. this year we would not have won.

The MWC micromanaged BSU's football uniforms before BSU proved to have a stronger hand in negotiations. I would not trust the MWC as a Conference to do BYU any favors. If BYU does rejoin the MWC hopefully we all realize that the MWC isn't our friend. The WCC has been a very good home for us (even if our stupid fans haven't done us any favors as far as being kind to our fellow Conference mates)

BroncoBot wrote:

hawkwing wrote:

If Gonzaga left, BYU still couldn't win the WCC. No point in staying if you can't even win a super weak league.

Painful to say but true. This year we’d lose to SDSU, BSU, Reno at a minimum. Middle of the pack at best.

Sadly, what he said was that BYU'd lose the WCC even if the Zags left. And he's right. this year we would not have won.

Understood and agree with that too. I was just pointing out that had we been in the MWC this year, we'd be middle of the pack at best

BoiseBYU wrote:

BoiseBYU wrote:

If Gonzaga left, BYU still couldn't win the WCC. No point in staying if you can't even win a super weak league.

Painful to say but true. This year we’d lose to SDSU, BSU, Reno at a minimum. Middle of the pack at best.

Sadly, what he said was that BYU'd lose the WCC even if the Zags left. And he's right. this year we would not have won.

Understood and agree with that too. I was just pointing out that had we been in the MWC this year, we'd be middle of the pack at best

It's all true.



I don't expect BYU to be able to return to the MWC and do any better than they've been doing in the WCC. I would say take BYU's finish position in the WCC and it would be 2 or 3 positions worse in the MWC.

BYU would currently have about the 3rd best RPI in the MWC, behind Nevada and Boise State. I think we would split a series with Boise easily though.

A couple of responses around the west that include comments about BYU:



http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/aztecs/sd-sp-sdsu-basketball-3-thoughts-boise-20180228-story.html



http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/feb/28/gonzaga-mountain-west-conference-discuss-possibili/#/0

BoiseBYU wrote:

BoiseBYU wrote:

If Gonzaga left, BYU still couldn't win the WCC. No point in staying if you can't even win a super weak league.

Painful to say but true. This year we’d lose to SDSU, BSU, Reno at a minimum. Middle of the pack at best.

Sadly, what he said was that BYU'd lose the WCC even if the Zags left. And he's right. this year we would not have won.

Understood and agree with that too. I was just pointing out that had we been in the MWC this year, we'd be middle of the pack at best

100%

If Gonzaga goes, we have to go with them. This shouldn't even be debateable, IMO. We can't stay in the WCC if that happens. Bring SMC and make it 14 teams for basketball. No point in debating today what would happen on the court. It would be a no-brainer financially to make the switch.

Truth is that if Gonzaga goes, we have to follow if they want us. Ending up in the WCC without Gonzaga would be a disaster. Realistically, if Gonzaga wants this, we should pursue a deal like Notre Dame has with the ACC, with basketball and all other sports in the MWC, and a 4-5 game a year scheduling agreement in football. The football would decrease scheduling pressure and really just firm up the direction we are already going with scheduling. With all ESPN contracts up for renewal, we could help the MWC and they might actually help us a little.

Andrew Adams, Deseret News:

"BYU's Tom Holmoe had been aware of Gonzaga-MWC talks, surprised Craig Thompson would discuss it openly."



Yeah, me too. I was really shocked. There had to be a reason. I can't imagine Hair Thompson saying anything without Mike Roth giving a nod for it to be released. Only other reason I could think of is him knowing that such info in the open would put more pressure on BYU to do something, because just the same that Craig Thompson divulged these talks, somehow TH knew of them. That's just nothing he would have gotten from casual conversation, but I don't think it came from any conversation with Hair Thompson because he said he hadn't spoken to BYU, but this had to come from Mike Roth to TH.

cougarapologist wrote:

Truth is that if Gonzaga goes, we have to follow if they want us. Ending up in the WCC without Gonzaga would be a disaster. Realistically, if Gonzaga wants this, we should pursue a deal like Notre Dame has with the ACC, with basketball and all other sports in the MWC, and a 4-5 game a year scheduling agreement in football. The football would decrease scheduling pressure and really just firm up the direction we are already going with scheduling. With all ESPN contracts up for renewal, we could help the MWC and they might actually help us a little.

agreed. And I really don't think 3rd tier TV rights (BYUTV) is going to be a problem. People forget that the real agitator in the BYUTV thing was actually Comcast. Where BYU got upset with the MWC was because they allowed Comcast to change the rules and then didn't tell us. Comcast is notoriously a pain in the neck to work with. It's just part of their corporate culture, I think. Regardless, BYU should have no problem this time getting it in writing that they can use BYUTV where appropriate since ESPN (assuming they end up with top tier broadcast rights) won't care.

BlueK wrote:
And I really don't think 3rd tier TV rights (BYUTV) is going to be a problem. People forget that the real agitator in the BYUTV thing was actually Comcast. BYU was upset with the MWC for allowing Comcast to assert rights over replays and even over games not picked up by the mtn. Comcast is notoriously a pain in the neck to work with. It's part of their corporate culture, I think. Regardless, BYU should have no problem this time getting it in writing that they can use BYUTV where appropriate since ESPN likes us and would have no problem with it.

I've seen some recent posts in cyberland where people were blaming Hair Thompson with the TV issue. It wasn't him whatsoever. He had nothing to gain to have BYU denied something that had been verbally agreed to by the network. The more the MWC games were on national TV, live or replays, was beneficial to the MWC.



Hair Thompson was directly to blame though for working to end BYU's move of BB and Olympic sports to the WAC. Yet, pat on the back to him for that move. It was brilliant and possibly saved the MWC. I just don't know really how good Thompson and Holmoe are with one another these days. In total honesty, BYU had been okay with Thompson's original appointment to be commissioner, but really I had hoped that Thompson would have been gone by now. He's sure been there a long time.

Interesting stat:

Number of Kenpom sub-150 teams in the WCC:



2012 - 4

2013 - 4

2014 - 3

2015 - 3

2016 - 6

2017 - 5

2018 - 5



For the MWC:



2012 - 3

2013 - 1

2014 - 2

2015 - 4

2016 - 3

2017 - 3

2018 - 3