Boise State, BYU back to Mountain West? Report denied, but they’d be wise to consider

Boise State and San Diego State did not join the Big East because they like its history and tradition. They did not do it because they wanted to see the world. There is nothing special about the Big East’s culture and virtue that lured Boise State and San Diego State.

At the time, the Big East was more likely to offer them BCS bowl access and more money. That has changed.

So news that those two, along with BYU, are considering staying in the Mountain West instead of leaving, makes perfect sense. Boise and SDSU can make the exact same access bowls in the MWC that they could in the Big East, and if the ACC raids the Big East for yet another traditional school, the Big East continues to weaken by the day. For BYU, ditching independence would mean getting playoff access -- like, any playoff access at all. As it is, it has almost none.

And though the Big East makes much more money for its schools right now than the MWC does, past performance is not a guarantee of future results. (Especially if UConn and Louisville leave.)

San Diego State has denied the report, also denying Boise and BYU have talked to the MWC, and has defended the Big East’s viability. BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall doesn’t know anything about it, but coaches usually aren’t going to spill these kinds of beans, if they even have any.

Their old home sounds like it would welcome them back, and Craig Thompson’s got a point here that’s hard to contend against:

I’d like to hear the argument for them staying in a Big East that could be about to lose UConn, Louisville or both.

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