Unsatisfied With Pity Party Results, Mountain West Foolishly Targets BCS

The Mountain West is mad as heck, and not gonna take it anymore. Or at least, that's their public face this week as Commissioner Craig Thompson has taken his grievances with the BCS to the halls of Congress. They've spent time lobbying various sympathetic representatives while calling the process 'rigged'.

All because Utah beat up on Alabama. It appears the Mountain West is after a guaranteed slot in the BCS (helloooo, BCS expansion) while threatening to go nuclear in Congress which would threaten the tax-exempt status of the various institutions. That is a bridge too far, and even sympathetic parties are publicly condemning the conference.

Our nominee for ridiculous quote of the day goes to Thompson who said 'I'm not certain that we're ultimately looking for government intervention. We're trying to raise public awareness.'

Translation: capitulate to our demands or we press this really shiny red button right next to our finger, pretty please.

Sympathetic FanBlogs.com rightly calls their actions a stunt.

Ultimately the Mountain West must end this charade. It's a stunt, plain and simple, to get more attention for the conference. And given the amount of effort that the MWC has put behind this campaign, it's starting to look more and more like an act of desperation by a conference that is on the cusp of a great decline, rather than the actions of division that is on the rise.

Broad-based support is also unlikely thanks to the limited nature of the Mountain West's actions. Instead of looking collectively for more entries for all smaller conferences, it appears they'd want a guaranteed opening only for themselves. The Sun Belt is having none of that.

Wright Waters doesn't want the Mountain West to get the seventh automatic BCS bid.

The Sun Belt Commissioner said that if the BCS had seven automatic bids, it would shut the rest of the non-automatic qualifying schools out of potential BCS bowls.

"There are only 10 slots," Waters said. "If you go from six to seven automatic qualifiers then you're filling three at-large spots rather than four. And when you've only got four, every one of them is important. I am not in favor of a seventh automatic qualifying team."

The Mountain West's actions are dead in the water unless they press forward and find some success in Congress. Problem is, by doing so, they open Pandora's Box and collegiate athletics to dramatic, unintended changes. In the meantime they look like petulant children.

(Via Get The Picture)