RE-POSTING: The MWCUSA? Benson's Vision Lives

Readers: I originally posted this in August of last year and had dusted it off Sunday, when I heard insiders in Oklahoma discuss the Sooners probable move to the Pac-12 while bringing up the concept of four-team pods.

Gee, where have we heard that before?

At any rate, I thought it was a novelty. Until today, when I read this about the Mountain West and Conference USA trying to get the band back together.

So now, I think it's pertinent to re-post the whole blog about Karl Benson's original WAC vision, and combining the MWC and C-USA. It might not happen how I thought it would, but it should, because pro-active is the only way to be in these cut-throat times.

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Karl Benson was ahead of his time.

As talk of a Mountain West-Conference USA superconference still hangs in the air, it's only showing that the longtime, nicest but most-victimized conference commissioner in sports was 15 years ahead of the game. 

Remember 1995? The Southwest Conference had broken up. TCU, SMU and Rice were left swaying in the breeze like Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State were close to being this year -- at the hands of the same schools. 

The University of Houston forged ahead to Conference USA, which was making a name for itself as a strong Midwest basketball conference that played football, too.

In stepped Benson and the Western Athletic Conference with a vision to help its own, the SWC leftovers and others.

Tulsa dumped the Missouri Valley Conference, UNLV and San Jose State jumped out of the PCAA/Big West and everyone joined a four-team pod with the rest of the WhAC to fulfill Benson's vision of the nation's first superconference -- simultaneously a way to insulate against upheaval, upgrade programs, gain stature and...

"This just in from Denver International Airport..."

Turns out everybody was down with the WAC except the WAC. Founding members Brigham Young, Wyoming and Utah, along with Colorado State and Air Force, didn't buy in to Benson's brainchild. Their athletic directors met for an airport hook-up that would make Larry Craig jealous. The tryst produced a bastard child -- the Mountain West.

The WAC got three seasons of pods, 1996-98, before the MWC was born in 1999.

And now, look.

Maybe Benson didn't dream big enough. The rumored merger between the Mountain West and Conference USA would create a 20-team league -- four louder than Benson's WAC vision.

No, the real reason it didn't work before was high rent with low return -- lots of costly cross-country travel, and the DIA Five were destined for shuffled pods, ruining money-making rivalry games against each other.

There hadn't been such an unwieldy, spread out, dour and downtrodden group since the fall of the Soviet Union.

But the 2010 incarnation? Capitalism at its finest.

That's because the winner of this pigskin polyglot would be in the Bowl Championship Series.

Sure would make a road trip from Fresno, CA, to Greensboro, NC, a lot easier to take.

Conference people: do this!

Enough bouncing around trying to out-hustle the other downtrodden non-BCS football conferences, especially since many consider superconferences to be college sports' destiny, anyway. 

Why not grab the bull by the horns, be the first, set the tone and carpe the flippin' diem?

The hard part falls to C-USA commish Britton Banowsky. If the conferences combine, it will be his unpleasant task to jettison Tulane, Rice, Marshall and UAB -- three private schools and a football afterthought, though that's not necessarily UAB's fault.

Memphis gets in because of its basketball. UTEP gets in because it's in Texas and draws fans. San Diego State gets in for the road trip.

The thinking is now that Banowsky and MWC commissioner Craig Thompson will hedge their bets and have an end-of-season showdown between both conference champions to determine who gets BCS glory.

Even so, the sacrifice is C-USA's to make. The conference already has a championship game while the MWC still needs two more to hold one. Likely, they wouldn't try to while C-USA would get rid of its title contest so as to not wear down the league champ.

But it says here that the time is now for the MWCUSA.

Keep an eye on September 1. That's the day BYU must announce if it's in or out of the Mountain West. 

If BYU stays, in the words of Sherlock Holmes, "The game is afoot."

Comments

[Graf915]

Great article, Duke. In your mind, then, what would be the super conference line-up be -- an actual list of teams? I realize it's a guessing game, but still an intriguing thought.

[Duke Keith]

Well, I had originally thought everyone from the MWC and all but Marshall, Tulane, Rice and UAB from C-USA. The understanding now is, the MWC would beef up to 12 (they want Baylor and either Kansas school, I bet) and play an inter-conference championship with C-USA for a possible BCS berth.

Don't expect the Big East and Big XII to just roll over, though. They have to shake things out first, then the MWC and C-USA get scraps. Remember, both still have BCS qualifying status before things actually blow up and both will do their utmost to keep that.

If they combine? Better, because that erases one of their two BCS bids and, to me, almost guarantees a C-USA-MWC winner a shot at a BCS berth.

Let's see how "super" the super conferences get. I bet West Virginia might get a call from the SEC, which further shakes the Big East.

One thing -- I don't know how much power commissioner Britton Banowsky has in all this. C-USA is just not going to be a BCS school's first choice. But he's a mover and shaker and knows plenty of heavy-hitters, especially when it comes to working TV deals. Bad time for C-USA to have run afoul of ESPN because they're king-makers right now. But still, if anyone sneaks something through enemy lines, I wouldn't be surprised if it's Banowksy.

[Devon Saint James]

Good thoughts there, Duke. Let's cross our fingers. The current C-USA line-up sucks, with UTEP having no intense rivalries.

[Shop Hermes Kelly]

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