Boise State football: 3 best post-Mountain West options
By John Scimeca
1. Form a new, Western-based league
This might be the least likely scenario to occur, but imagine the need that this move could fill. Since the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) ceased to compete in football in 2012, the Mountain West has been the region’s only alternative to the power conference, the Pac-12.
Here’s how a resurrected WAC could look: Boise State, BYU, and New Mexico State join forces with re-promoted Idaho (who departed for the FCS ranks in 2017). Throw in some potentially promoted FCS programs like Montana, Montana State, and Eastern Washington, and perhaps even a dissatisfied Air Force Academy and a poached UTEP from C-USA, and you’re talking about a good replacement football conference for the WAC.
Pros: Programs like Idaho, New Mexico State, and BYU would have a conference home in their region of the United States. An in-state rivalry with the Vandals could be established.
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Cons: The league’s overall quality would be significantly worse than the Mountain West. It’s difficult to see any of tho aforementioned teams beating Power 5 programs anytime soon, unlike several Mountain West teams in 2019. With this current setup, there’s also no automatic pipeline to California, an important source of recruits.