Today was supposed to be the day that the first shoe of expansion dropped.
The Mountain West was supposed to extend an invitation for Boise State to join the league in 2011 and the Broncos were supposed to accept.
That was before the Pac-10 and Big 12 started stealing the spotlight.
For the past few days, speculation has been rampant about the Pac-10 taking six teams from the Big 12 to form a 16-team league. There also are rumors that the Big Ten will invite Nebraska and Missouri, leaving the Big 12 with just four teams and essentially a defunct league.
So here’s the Mountain West, prepared to expand by one, but now presented with an opportunity to expand with the remaining Big 12 teams.
What’s a conference to do?
Reports have been all over the place:
The Mountain West could go ahead with its scheduled plan and ignore the Pac-10 report.
The Mountain West could hold off on expansion until the Pac-10 and Big Ten send invites, which could happen this week.
The Mountain West could now look to expand to 16 teams.
The Mountain West has tried to stay away from massive expansion to avoid what happened to the 16-team WAC (which ultimately created the Mountain West), but Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said the conference presidents talked about the idea on Sunday.
"At the 30,000-foot level, we talked about 16 for the first time in a long time," Thompson told media camped out in Jackson, Wyo.
So, here’s this week’s question: If you’re the Mountain West, do you wait to let expansion play out or take Boise State and look to go to 16 teams? And if the conference does wait, does Boise State fear it might be left out in the cold?
We might find out this answer later today, but I thought I’d let you all play commissioner. Now, we don’t know which teams will be available, but it looks like a four-team mixture of the potential choices -- Baylor, Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State -- could be on the table. So what do you think? Should Boise State be sweating?
Same drill as usual. Send your thoughts to my mailbag and I’ll post them tomorrow. Regardless of today’s outcome (if there is one), this should still create some good talking points.