Commish

Yesterday I heard an interview with MWC commissioner Craig Thompson. A number of things were discussed, and he had a ready answer for every question, but there were a few of his answers that didn't sit well with me at first, and now that I've had some time to digest them, they make me crazy.

The first answer that I wasn't satisfied with had to do with using any of BYU's premier television facilities and working out a deal where the conference could get more exposure using said facilities and BYU's cable network. Thompson said that really wouldn't work because it couldn't be fit into the contracts that they have with Comcast and CBS Sports. As a follow up, Scott Garrard of 1320 KFAN, the media member doing the interview, asked him about negotiating with ESPN for a TV deal to gain greater exposure nationally. Thompson basically said that they wouldn't absolutely rule this out, but that ESPN would want them to have games earlier in the week, and that this wouldn't work with ticket sales at schools like (mostly) Wyoming. He even used as an example of how fans at some other schools would feel about this the fact that Wyoming, Colorado State, and Air Force only recently installed lights onto their stadiums, and that some of the alumni of those schools had complained that this would mean that they would have to have night games now.

Can I just ask this? Which schools bring in the most revenue for the conference? Through ticket sales, donations, TV ratings, etc? Is it Wyoming or Colorado State? Why does Craig Thompson give a crap what Wyoming's alumni think about having a week night game? They never sell out their stadium, even for a Saturday midday game against a high profile opponent. What do Wyoming's ticket sales have to do with the health of the conference as a whole?

He went on to talk about the deal the conference has right now with Comcast, and talked up Versus as a network that is growing and soon will be like TNT or TBS. What? Versus is a horrible network. The quality of the games is so low, any casual fan isn't going to stop on a game on versus and watch it when ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPNU all have games with excellent coverage and quality available for them to watch at the same time. The Mountain is a terrible network. The Mountain West Conference has its priorities all mixed up, and it's time for BYU to take drastic measures and do whatever it takes to lift themselves above all the sub par efforts of this conference.