Grading the Week: Congratulations, Mountain West Conference, for holding your ground. But your work is just beginning

Take a bow, Mountain West. You did the hard portion this week by clasping hands and sticking unneurotic amid a fog of fear, uncertainty and assemblage shot realignment tumult.

With Colorado State, Air Force, San Diego State and Boise State resisting overtures from a scrambling American Athletic Conference, they each opted against jumping disconnected 1 rickety vessel to committee another. That makes each thing of a unicorn among FBS diversion programs these days, whose administrators often conflict to defy adjacent marginal increases successful media distributions.

For that, the Grading the Week unit stands successful applause.

Mountain West — A

But your enactment is not done yet, Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson.

While your league remains intact, 1 tin inactive spot the hazy outline of much Ayn Randian objectivist chaos disconnected successful the distance. As definite arsenic New Mexico volition tract an underwhelming shot program, self-interest volition erstwhile again instrumentality a wrecking shot to the determination rivalries and traditions that drew america to assemblage athletics successful the archetypal place.

If the Mountain West and its subordinate schools are to beryllium a portion of this brave caller world, Thompson indispensable present beryllium proactive successful securing its future. That is, unless he’s contented with his league continuing to service arsenic a measurement presumption for its apical programs to bide their clip until the adjacent circular of Power 5 offers. (Which, admittedly, is somewhat unavoidable fixed the Big 12’s consistently wandering eye.)

Translation: Thompson indispensable aggressively question enlargement opportunities that fortify the Mountain West.

The mode we spot it, determination are 2 options: Either Thompson reaches retired to the AAC to forge a concern akin to the Pac-12/Big Ten/ACC confederation that tin payment some brands successful aboriginal scheduling/media negotiations, oregon helium goes looking for different programs that volition marque the Mountain West the wide No. 6 league successful FBS.

In regards to the latter, a fistful of schools would marque a full batch of consciousness for the conference: SMU and Tulsa successful the AAC, and UTSA, UTEP and/or Rice successful Conference USA.

Not lone would that unfastened up fertile recruiting grounds successful Texas and Oklahoma, it would grow the conference’s geographic footprint into different clip zone, bringing with it much broadcast windows, viewership and nationalist relevance.

If there’s thing this past week proved, it’s that the AAC’s presumption arsenic a “Power 6” league — nevertheless propped up it might’ve been by ESPN — was vastly overstated present that Cincinnati, Houston and Central Florida are Big 12-bound.

The quality successful distributions betwixt the AAC and Mountain West is definite to either shrink oregon vanish altogether erstwhile those 3 schools permission and the AAC’s media partners request a re-negotiation of their deals.

And with that comes a accidental to plaything the pendulum successful the different direction.

Up until this week, Mr. Thompson’s top accomplishment was being successful the country portion leaders from the SEC, ACC and Notre Dame mapped retired a imaginable College Football Playoff enlargement to 12 teams that would unfastened up entree to Group of 5 schools.

Now, he’s the antheral who helped stave disconnected the AAC poachers astatine the gates (or astatine slightest helium tin assertion to be). If helium plays his cards right, possibly helium tin beryllium remembered for adjacent more.