The Mountain West Conference (or MWC), the youngest of the college athletic conferences affiliated with the NCAA?s Division I FBS (I-A), officially began operations in July 1999. Geographically, the MWC covers a broad expanse of the western United States, with member institutions located in California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Craig Thompson has served as Commissioner of the MWC since its founding in 1999.

Charter members included Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah, and Wyoming. Prior to forming the Mountain West Conference, seven of the eight charter members had been longtime members of the Western Athletic Conference; half were WAC charter members at its formation in 1962 - UNLV had only joined the WAC in 1996.

The WAC expanded from 10 to 16 universities in 1996, absorbing three teams from the defunct Southwest Conference (Rice, SMU, and TCU), adding two from the Big West (San Jose State and UNLV), and Tulsa from the Missouri Valley. After three football seasons, most of the pre-expansion members decided the that the new WAC was oversized, and departed to form the Mountain West Conference. The MWC added a ninth team in 2005: TCU, also a former WAC member, joined after four seasons in Conference USA.

A lesser known "Mountain West Athletic Conference" existed from 1982-88, sponsoring championships for women?s sports at Big Sky Conference institutions. The Big Sky absorbed the MWAC in 1988, forming one league for both men's and women's competition.

Members

Endowment

1. Texas Christian University-$1.2 billion
2. University of Nevada, Las Vegas-$567 million
3. University of Utah-$509 million
4. University of New Mexico-$385 million
5. Brigham Young University-$289 million
6. University of Wyoming-$259 million
7. Colorado State University-$193 million
8. San Diego State University-$120 million

Sports

The MWC sponsors championships in baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, skiing, women's soccer, swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, women's volleyball, football, softball,indoor and outdoor track and cross country. Many of its member schools participate in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for sports not sponsored by the Mountain West Conference.

Two MWC schools have unique affiliations in men's soccer. San Diego State competes as a member of the Pacific-10 Conference. BYU has completely abandoned the collegiate competitive structure in that sport, opting instead to field a semi-professional team in the USL Premier Development League (see BYU Cougars soccer).

Television network

See main article at MountainWest Sports Network

History

Launched on September 1, 2006 by the Mountain West Conference (MWC) and CBS College Sports (formerly CSTV), The Mtn. ? the MountainWest Sports Network ? (pronounced ?The Mountain?) is the first network dedicated solely to one college athletic conference. In 2006, the MWC elected to discontinue affiliation with ESPN, due to a poor contract offer. ESPN wanted the MWC to play games on unfavorable nights/times (Tuesdays and Wednesdays), and with an offer for less money. Instead, most MWC athletics are televised on The Mtn., owned jointly by CBS College Sports and Comcast, and operated by Comcast SportsNet. The Mtn. has carriage agreements with numerous cable companies and is on its way to being thoroughly distributed. Many MWC games are also carried on nationally distributed sports networks CBS College Sports, and Versus, owned by Comcast. After years of debate, satellite company DirecTV and Comcast reached an agreement to have the satellite company carry The Mtn., lessening consumer frustration.

On June 1, 2007 Brigham Young University and the University of Utah Presidents issued a joint press release that they "retained a sports broadcasting attorney to explore all possible options in improving the distribution of athletic broadcasts to their fans". ^[1]

On June 5, 2007 the MWC Board "reaffirmed its unanimous support of the league's television model and its commitment to working collectively as a unified group", and its Directors unanimously voted to join BYU and Utah to retain the attorney they had hired.^[2]

In an interview with KUTV, President Michael K. Young of Utah stated that "Every [MWC member] knows...President Samuelson and I have been clear about this for the last year and a half that it is absolutely essential that we get on satellite to make our games available to our fans. Anything short of that is unacceptable." He then added that "We are passionately committed to our having our football games being on TV this year."^[3]

The Mountain West Conference got its wish when on February 22, 2008 DirecTV announced that it will launch The Mtn. Sports Network on a nationwide basis no later then September 1st, 2008. The Mtn. - MountainWest Sports Network To Launch Nationwide on DirecTV

Programming

The Mtn. provides coverage of MWC athletics across multiple sports including football, men's and women's basketball, and men's and women's Olympic sports. In its first school year of coverage, The Mtn. broadcast 30 football games, 75 men?s basketball games, and 25 women?s basketball games. In addition to live game coverage, fans get an array of news, features, and analysis about their favorite MWC teams and players. The Mtn.'s anchors and reporters provide viewers with pre-game, halftime, and post-game coverage, and weekly and seasonal analysis and wrap-ups. The Mtn. also takes fans behind the scenes with coverage of the latest stats, press conferences, coaching developments and more.

Distribution

The Mtn. is currently available in eight of the nine MWC markets, and the following 17 providers offer The Mtn. DirecTV started offering The Mtn. nationwide on August 27th, 2008:

• CABLE
  • All West Communications (Utah, Wyoming)
  • Bresnan Communications (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming)
  • Baja Broadband (Colorado(expected Sept. 20 2007), Nevada, Utah)
  • Cable One (Idaho, New Mexico)
  • CentraCom Cable TV (Utah)
  • Comcast (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah)
  • Cox Communications (California, Nevada)
  • Independent Cable Systems of Idaho (Idaho)
  • Manti Tele Communications Company (Utah)
  • MSTARmetro (Utah)
  • Project Mutual Telephone (Idaho)
  • Provo Cable (Utah)
  • Rural Telephone Company (Idaho)
  • Saratoga Cable (Utah)
  • Silver Star Communications (Wyoming)
  • Spanish Fork Community Network (Utah)
  • Sweetwater Cable Television (Wyoming)
  • TCT (Wyoming)
• SATELLITE
  • DirecTV (Channel 616)
• OTHER
  • Comcast.net (highlights only)

Conference Champions

Men's Championship Winners

Source:^[4]

Women's Championship Winners

Source:^[4]

Football Rivalries

Conference

Non-Conference

Postseason Records

Conference Facilities

See also

• Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
• Mountain West Conference Baseball Tournament

References

External links

• Official Athletic Site of the Mountain West Conference
• Largest MWC Fan Forum

de:Mountain West Conference el:Mountain West Conference (??????????????) es:Mountain West Conference fr:Mountain West Conference simple:Mountain West Conference