Deseret News columnist and BYU hack Dick Harmon sympathizes with Boise State and the fact the MW said no more unequal revenue sharing. Similar to the victim that BYU was in the WAC/MW.

Honestly Alabama shares TV revenue equally with Vanderbilt, don't know why these people think they should be any different...

You can't make this stuff up.

https://www.deseret.com/sports/2020/1/2 ... mormon-lds

I know it would affect the Aggies if they leave but quite frankly I don't care at this point let them go and and let the chips fall where they may. We need to have an equal playing field. They may be able to go to the AAC but there is no way that boise can sustain Independence long-term.

flying_scotsman2.0 wrote: ↑

January 25th, 2020, 10:23 am

The fact is, we are the only other viable football conference out west after the PAC12. We need to start acting like it. If Boise wants to go kill themselves financially in the AAC, or kill themselves literally in independence, let them go. But if they have a big dropoff in football, they likely won't be invited back into the MWC simply because they bring nothing to the table besides football.

Let them go. The Mountain West would be a fine conference without Boise.

This is how I feel the there literally is no other options out west only to join the AAC but then the travel cost of traveling 2000 miles to your nearest game just isn't feasible long term.

Aggie84025 wrote: ↑

January 25th, 2020, 10:39 am

flying_scotsman2.0 wrote: ↑

January 25th, 2020, 10:23 am

The fact is, we are the only other viable football conference out west after the PAC12. We need to start acting like it. If Boise wants to go kill themselves financially in the AAC, or kill themselves literally in independence, let them go. But if they have a big dropoff in football, they likely won't be invited back into the MWC simply because they bring nothing to the table besides football.

Let them go. The Mountain West would be a fine conference without Boise.

This is how I feel the there literally is no other options out west only to join the AAC but then the travel cost of traveling 2000 miles to your nearest game just isn't feasible long term.

West Virginia kind of does it, but Big XII money probably makes it worth it.

I am curious if Boise really has a case. I am not a lawyer, but it seems like when a contract expires, a the conditions of the new one is not predicated by the old one. I am not really even vindictive about this, these are business deals after all. It just doesn't seem to me that a school with attendance figures that rank 67th out of 127 schools nationally commands that much of an audience.

I do wonder if someone at BYU planted something in his ear to give them a stronger negotiating hand though. People have hypothesized BYU could be in negotiations with Boise, and he may be trying to rile the BYU masses if the AAC gets involved.

If Boise State were to leave the conference, the extra money that they leave behind can then be distributed throughout the remaining schools and allow them to use the newly acquired funds to raise the level of their programs.

aggies22 wrote:If Boise State were to leave the conference, the extra money that they leave behind can then be distributed throughout the remaining schools and allow them to use the newly acquired funds to raise the level of their programs.

What happens if that money shrinks to almost nothing once they leave ?


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2004AG wrote: ↑

January 25th, 2020, 11:31 am

aggies22 wrote:If Boise State were to leave the conference, the extra money that they leave behind can then be distributed throughout the remaining schools and allow them to use the newly acquired funds to raise the level of their programs.

What happens if that money shrinks to almost nothing once they leave ?


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Isn't that Thompson's job? To convince everyone that the Mountain West Conference is still a valuable commodity even though Boise State would no longer be a member?

aggies22 wrote: ↑

January 25th, 2020, 11:21 am

If Boise State were to leave the conference, the extra money that they leave behind can then be distributed throughout the remaining schools and allow them to use the newly acquired funds to raise the level of their programs.

The problem is if BSU leaves then the T.V. contract will have a revenue decrease, remember that CBS and Fox had rights to all BSU home games and the other has rights to all road games the amount. What we will get could drop as much as $2 million per school. I do not know what the conference exit fees are, but BSU can claim that the MWC broke the contract with them by changing the media deal.

It is in the best interest of everyone if this gets worked out I would prefer a bonus paid out to the schools that make it into the conference championship game and a addition award given to the conference champ. That way everyone has a shot at the revenue, and performance based, example would be host team keeps all game revenue, each school would get $250,000 for wining their division, and the winner of that game gets a $1 million dollar bonus, of course the amounts could go up or down as they see fit that way everyone has the same shot.

Joining another conference would also hurt Boise in the recruiting side of things. A lot of the talent they get comes from California, playing their games east of the rockies would not be good for them. It doesn't help what ever conference they end up at in recruiting either. Idaho doesn't have much talent.

If this goes to court, in all likelihood Boise will win this, the MW promised them the extra money forever. If they leave, AAC will become undisputed top G5 league and MW will be competing with Sun Belt and the rest for number2.

If this goes to court, in all likelihood Boise will win this, the MW promised them the extra money forever. If they leave, AAC will become undisputed top G5 league and MW will be competing with Sun Belt and the rest for number 2.

Jjoey52 wrote: ↑

January 25th, 2020, 12:09 pm

If this goes to court, in all likelihood Boise will win this, the MW promised them the extra money forever. If they leave, AAC will become undisputed top G5 league and MW will be competing with Sun Belt and the rest for number2.

two things:

• 1. is it anywhere IN WRITING that we "promised them extra money forever"? and
  2. is there anything that says IN WRITING that the extra money we promised them would be in the same proportion to the full TV contract for the rest of forever?

I read the lawsuit, and I didn't see any evidence that either of the above were true. If the new contract says USU gets $4 million, and Boise gets $4 million + $1.8 million, then BSU gets 45% more than USU. That's bad, but it's not nearly as bad as if USU gets $900,000 and BSU gets $900,000 plus $1.8 million, or 300% more than USU. It might even make sense to me that the plan was for the BONUS $$ given to BSU to get progressively "diluted" with each successive TV contract negotiation?

Having lived in Iowa and Alabama for the past 12+ years, I can say that almost nobody East of the Intermountain West cares about Boise St. Yes, a renegotiated contract might be smaller, but I don't see BSU being worth 50% of the MWC value. Then again, I'm not a TV network expert, so who knows?

aggies22 wrote:

2004AG wrote: ↑

January 25th, 2020, 11:31 am

aggies22 wrote:If Boise State were to leave the conference, the extra money that they leave behind can then be distributed throughout the remaining schools and allow them to use the newly acquired funds to raise the level of their programs.

What happens if that money shrinks to almost nothing once they leave ?


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Isn't that Thompson's job? To convince everyone that the Mountain West Conference is still a valuable commodity even though Boise State would no longer be a member?

But if Boise leaves, its no longer as valuable a commodity.

It is certainly his job to negotiate tv contracts but tv execs aren’t stupid. Thompson can only sell the hand he’s dealt and no amount of selling will make up for losing Boise. The tv contracts will undoubtedly decrease so Usu will probably end up up with less money without Boise than they would with Boise, even with their subsidy.


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The article itself is actually kind of funny, Boise aside. Harmon complains that BYU players from the 80's weren't getting player of the week enough, 35 years ago. He posits these same admins hold the same grudges against Boise. I don't know about anyone else sees something different, but most of those people are either retired, dead, or both. What made me chuckle is he would have to go back clear to Joe Kearney to hold responsible Craig Thompson's alleged misdeeds.

I laughed though about not getting enough of their players in the 80's selected as players of the week or all conference honors.

And we think USU has a small man syndrome...

After the decline of BYU as an independent, would networks see an independent Boise as a short-sale stock?

BiocatAg wrote: ↑

January 25th, 2020, 1:55 pm

Having lived in Iowa and Alabama for the past 12+ years, I can say that almost nobody East of the Intermountain West cares about Boise St. Yes, a renegotiated contract might be smaller, but I don't see BSU being worth 50% of the MWC value. Then again, I'm not a TV network expert, so who knows?

Thank you!!!! I couldn’t agree more. BSU and BYU have such over inflated egos when it comes to how much market they hold its comical. They stand in front of the mirror and tell themselves how big of a deal they are. BSU has Idaho, think about that.....Idaho. Big deal! The population of the entire state is less than 2 million and only a percentage of those even care about the donks. I would love to see an unbiased set of numbers showing the viewership they actually draw.

We need to quite talking like Boise is the glue holding the conference together. SDSU, Fresno, UNLV, UNM, CSU all bring a hell of a lot to the table as far as markets are concerned. If Boise wants to leave then screw em. Here’s when Thompson gets to earn his keep and make sure the MWC stays strong.

Boise leaving the WAC helped us to our first ranked season in my lifetime.

Boise leaving the mwc might hurt the conference- but it takes a bigger fish out of the pond. Boise leaving means another team that goes 9-3 or 10-2 likely replaces Boise as the team and goes 10-2 or 11-1...

If we didn’t lose to aBoise in 2018 we could have likely been a 1 loss team.

Plus if I never have to see that blue field with Boise wearing all blue, it’d be worth it.

Jjoey52 wrote: ↑

January 25th, 2020, 12:09 pm

If this goes to court, in all likelihood Boise will win this, the MW promised them the extra money forever. If they leave, AAC will become undisputed top G5 league and MW will be competing with Sun Belt and the rest for number 2.

I don't know that the conference deal specifically stated that it is "forever", I think that ultimately there is no specified termination date. I am not a lawyer, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night, but from this board, comments on some of the news articles, and a conversation with my contract lawyer father, that courts generally frown upon indefinite or permanent contracts. My guess is that if this ends up going to trial, nobody will "win", but there will rather be a court ordered remedy. This could be something like Boise's special deal being terminated, but with Boise getting some compensation, thus giving Boise something, and the MWC being freed from the deal.

I do agree that if Boise joins the AAC, the AAC will get the NY6 spot on essentially a permanent basis, at least until the P5 conferences make a full split.

One thing is certain is that Boise will never be a P5 school. The power conferences will never allow another school to make the jump, and most likely the next re-alignment will result in more P5 schools being dumped down. Schools like Iowa State, Oregon State, Texas Tech, and Vanderbilt will be in danger next time there is a major re-alignment.

Boise is flexing their little muscles, breathing out all kinds of threats. Ultimately, they know the score, they have no where to go (or it would have already happened), and they don’t want to drag their Olympic sports cross country, eating up all new money in travel costs for the 20 or so sports required by the AAC. This will all get ironed out somehow and everybody will be very happy in the end with nobody going anywhere.

AggiesForever wrote: ↑

January 27th, 2020, 8:02 am

Boise is flexing their little muscles, breathing out all kinds of threats. Ultimately, they know the score, they have no where to go (or it would have already happened), and they don’t want to drag their Olympic sports cross country, eating up all new money in travel costs for the 20 or so sports required by the AAC. This will all get ironed out somehow and everybody will be very happy in the end with nobody going anywhere.

Apparently Boise is in discussions with the WCC and Big West to house Olympic sports, while football goes solo to AAC. I don't know how close to a reality that is w.r.t. whether the AAC would take them as football only, but it makes the travel part of this equation much easier for them.

BigBlueDart wrote: ↑

January 27th, 2020, 12:03 pm

AggiesForever wrote: ↑

January 27th, 2020, 8:02 am

Boise is flexing their little muscles, breathing out all kinds of threats. Ultimately, they know the score, they have no where to go (or it would have already happened), and they don’t want to drag their Olympic sports cross country, eating up all new money in travel costs for the 20 or so sports required by the AAC. This will all get ironed out somehow and everybody will be very happy in the end with nobody going anywhere.

Apparently Boise is in discussions with the WCC and Big West to house Olympic sports, while football goes solo to AAC. I don't know how close to a reality that is w.r.t. whether the AAC would take them as football only, but it makes the travel part of this equation much easier for them.

The big west is currently a California only conference except for Hawaii which, if I recall right, pays travel subsidies. Boise is out of the footprint and unlike Hawaii which has national championship caliber volleyball does not move the meter for Olympic sports.

The WCC is an even worse fit as every school is a religious/church school and boise isn't. BYU wasn't a slam dunk admission but they bring more to the table Olympic sports wise than Boise. I don't see it working out. I think their best chance is to join the current rebuilt WAC which will kill their sports. at least they can compete with NMSU and UVU for the 15 seed autobid.