Something's Wrong with the MWC's Kool-Aid

Story from Josh at Cougar Legion:

Has anyone been hearing the stuff coming out of Mountain West Conference headquarters lately? The way Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson talks, you'd think the Molehill...er, the mtn. network, is the greatest thing since shoulder pads. Reaching an earth-shaking 1.2 million homes in a small handful of markets, the mtn. is redefining quality sports television. Other conferences will look to the Mountain West, the fearless trail blazer, as the textbook example of how to start their own conference networks. That's what the conference is serving us in lovely plastic cups. Drink up!

That's not all, either. Finally, the viewing public can get down to the nitty-gritty with individual conference athletes! In his State of the Conference address last Tuesday, Commissioner Thompson said, "Telling the story, giving background on athletes, covering these young people and giving them exposure has been something never done before in any college conference ever." What a novel idea! I mean, I don't know about you, but I've been dying to experience a day in the life of a college student. Oh wait, I used to be a college student.

Perhaps the greatest "benefit" of the Molehill has been its ability to drive people to buy tickets to sporting events. No, seriously. Thompson asserted that the "increased" television exposure of MWC football and basketball contributed to a record number of fans in attendance at the games. Wait...what? More television exposure helped encourage people to attend games in person. Now, I may not be the sharpest arrow in the quiver, but why would more people want to attend games if more conference games were available on television? Wouldn't it work the other way around? OK, just checking...

"We had 95 percent of our football games televised this past year, and that's never happened in the history of the league," Thompson said. "We had 90 percent of our games played on Saturday and 25 percent of those games started before noon — a priority for presidents of our universities, to make it comfortable for fans to attend games."

Oh, so that's it. The new network enables more broadcasting on Saturdays, making it easier for fans to attend games. Now, that makes sense. But just when Thompson was starting to get the right amount of sugar in the Kool-Aid, he spilled the salt right into it:

"Attendance at games are the lifeblood of athletic departments across the country. We got the best of both worlds with this coverage and attendance."

Oh no, Craig. On what forsaken world is the Molehill the best there is? Some teams' fans (namely TCU and New Mexico) have no option to see their teams play unless they buy tickets to the games. How is that the best of any world? How do you expect any of us to drink this slop?!

Craig Thompson is going about this network thing all wrong. Instead of trying to fool us into thinking that the Molehill is the answer to the MWC's problems, he needs to acknowledge that the lack of distribution of the Molehill is a ball and chain for the league and that the conference is going to fight tooth and nail with Comcast to get a deal done.

Thompson was quite matter-of-fact, comically, in debunking the idea that new TV deal has hurt the conference's exposure and, thus, recruiting: "We had two of our teams go 11-2 (BYU and TCU) and they were ranked in the top 25 this past year. Those are opinion polls." While it hasn't hurt every team's recruiting (BYU, Utah, and TCU have faired pretty well), some teams have suffered noticeably:

Colorado State used to own Thursday night games on ESPN and built some great momentum from that exposure, winning a handful of league titles, bowl games and garnering some national respect. The Rams went in the tank as soon as that exposure went away. Coincidence? Nope.

New Mexico enjoyed a steady climb from bottom-feeder to perennial conference contender...until nobody could see them on TV anymore. The Lobos have been on a downward slide the past few seasons, and are likely to finish no better than fourth in the league this year. The Molehill isn't the only reason for New Mexico's struggles, but it's definitely a factor.

SDSU has to compete with PAC-10 schools, not to mention the top Mountain West teams, for talent. Yet, they can only be seen on TV by a fraction of the San Diego community, let alone the rest of southern California. What are they supposed to sell recruits on? Sunshine? Mediocre academics?

Thompson might actually save his job if he just came out and acknowledged that the situation is not great right now.

On second thought, I don't really think Thompson can do anything to save his job. Let's have his head and be done with it.

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