Posted at 10:52 a.m., Tuesday, June 4, 2002
Mountain West Conference won't expand this year
Advertiser Staff
The Mountain West Conference shut the door on expansion for at least another year today, reaffirming its intention to remain an eight-team conference.There had been persistent speculation the MWC, which is composed of schools that split from the 16-team Western Athletic Conference in 1999, might move to add the University of Hawai'i and Fresno State for 2003 or '04.
But Commissioner Craig Thompson emerged from the MWC's annual Board of Directors meeting in Colorado today to say the conference, "has no great interest at this point in looking at expansion."
Thompson said the conference moratorium on expansion is in place through June 30, 2004.
During its meetings, the MWC announced it will no longer accept academic non-qualifiers after Aug. 1, 2003.
The move was seen as an attempt to strengthen the conference's appeal to the Bowl Championship Series, which the MWC hopes to join.
