By ROBERT GAGLIARDI / rgagliardi@wyosports.net • Thursday, July 28, 2011
LAS VEGAS — Finances and integrity.
Those were the focal points of Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson’s State of the MW address to the media Wednesday morning at the Red Rock Resort and Casino.
“It’s a time of change for the Mountain West Conference and a time of change in intercollegiate athletics,” he said.
Thompson said nearly every MWC school has faced budget cuts recently, and more could happen, including upwards of $400 billion in cuts from all three service academies. Air Force is an MWC member.
Thompson added it’s crucial that the school presidents in the league continue to commit to fund intercollegiate athletics.
But it’s not like the money well has run dry.
Since the formation of the conference in 1999, the average athletics department budget of each member has increased from about $17 million to $38 million today. That’s almost a 124 percent increase overall and about an 11 percent increase annually.
And since the MW began, $840 million has been spent on athletics facilities alone.
That may pale in comparison to other bigger conferences, but that’s quite a commitment to college athletics in one of the more sparsely populated parts of the country, he said.
Thompson said the structure of many NCAA Division I schools needs to change because among the 300-plus Division I basketball playing institutions, the athletics budgets of those schools range from $5 million to $130 million.
“Yet the way the rule book, NCAA manual and the way we do business states, one size fits all. That’s not going to continue to work, and it’s really not working now,” Thompson said.
“One of the biggest challenges we face (in the MW) is just keeping the doors open and maintaining our programs, let alone growing our programs.”
Thompson said an NCAA presidential retreat Aug. 9-10, headed by NCAA President Mark Emmert, will address this issue, along with enforcement issues and student-athlete welfare.
Enforcement of NCAA rules was another point of emphasis.
Since the BCS era started in 1998, there have been 11 different champions. Five of those 11 have been placed on probation by the NCAA for major rule violations.
However, Thompson said he would like to see the NCAA be swifter and harsher on the penalties it hands out to schools that break the rules.
“I think the process is a little antiquated, to say the least,” Thompson said. “Another component is the petty crimes, if you will, versus major infractions — blatant cheating and people just simply ignoring the rules and regulations.
“There’s got to be a better system to time these out and to get to the final process quicker.”
Thompson called for “debilitating sanctions” against schools that have major rule violations.
Other notable items from Thompson:
— Rumors surfaced Tuesday night that Utah State might join the MW. Thompson said the MW’s board of directors and athletics directors didn’t discuss that during their meetings in May and June.
MW associate commissioner for communications Javan Hedlund said the league right now has no interest in Utah State.
— With eight teams, the MW has four bowl ties this season: Las Vegas, Poinsettia, New Mexico and Liberty. When the MW expands to 10 teams in 2012, it will add another bowl game. The two favorites are the Hawaii Bowl or Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho.
— There still isn’t an agreement for DISH Network to carry the MountainWest Sports Network, and Thompson wasn’t optimistic one will be done anytime soon.
— The MW has the best bowl record of any Football Bowl Subdivision conference over the last seven years at 22-9.
— The league will play eight conference games starting in 2012 with a 10-team league. Each team will be able to “protect” one game with one conference opponent. None of those have been determined yet.
— Each MW school will receive between $1.4 million and $1.5 million from television revenue in 2011-12, which isn’t much different than the previous year.
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