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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Mountain West
needs teams to step upALL right. All right. I may be the last one. But I'm finally willing to consider the possibility of Hawaii joining the Mountain West Conference.
So OK then, let's look at it.
What does the MWC have to offer? Football nostalgia. Ready-made rivalries (not ones on the front end of a 10- to 20-year maturing process). Tradition. Fewer trips to Ruston, La.
And, if it can cajole a team or two into jumping ship, trading one for the other, at least the perception that it's a bigger, better deal than the WAC.
Fine. That's an interesting case. But if you're looking to join up, there are a few things that need to be addressed. You need to look at more than just the prestige of being the one chosen to join.
First, no more of that back room back-stabbing stuff. The less said about that the better, but a school president should be able to go his entire career without uttering the phrase, "Et tu, Colorado State?"
Next, BYU. Get better. This is a must. I'm not the first to say that if the MWC is going to be a big deal (or even a medium one), the Cougars need to be the New York Yankees again. BYU needs to carry the conference on a national scale, and a regional one. It has to give the rest of the bunch a team they love to hate. BYU is the standard bearer.
A mediocre BYU drops the whole league down a notch.
(And the Cougars haven't been the same since UH hung 72 on them in December, 2001.)
(Or maybe, it was since Luke Staley broke his leg.)
(Whatever.)
Remember when the old WAC was BYU and the Seven Dwarfs?
At least there were only seven.
Just think, what would happen to the Atlantic Coast Conference if Florida State were to slide downhill for a year or two?
What? Oh, right ...
Anyway, BYU needs to be BYU again. Then we'll talk.
And back to the Rams. They need to get better, too. Yeah, they won the MWC last season, but now it's time to make a move. The CSU football program just received a $15.2 million donation. Sonny Lubick is a great coach. Colorado State has knocked on the door of the Top 10 in the past, has thumped in-state Big 12 rival Colorado.
If Colorado State can take that next step -- and I think it can -- and BYU returns to prominence, then you've got something to offer.
The WAC has a good argument in men's basketball, has national title contenders in baseball, volleyball and women's hoops. But this sounds like it would be a football and travel decision.
Last season only two MWC teams had winning records.
This is the big-time football conference?
Yeah, it's just one year.
But it was last year.
Now, Wyoming. In the old days the problem was that nobody wanted to travel to Laramie. Now, it seems, this includes actual Wyoming fans, too, with the lowest average attendance since 1962. Got to get that attendance up, people! This is a crisis. Get them in the door. I don't know, tell them it's a rodeo or something.
Or better yet, just tell them they're in the Mountain West.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com