Brigham Young and the WAC: How It Nearly Came to Be

Brigham Young had plenty of co-conspirators in its planned move out of the Mountain West Conference. Utah State for one. ESPN for another.

Yes, that's right. The four-letter network was involved from the beginning.

Documents and email correspondence obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune through an open records request detailed how the Cougars planned to declare their independence in football and join the Western Athletic Conference in all other sports.

Utah State president Stan Albrecht, who has been criticized for not accepting an offer to move the Aggies from the WAC to the Mountain West after news of BYU's planned move began to trickle out, had incentive to stay the course. He had masterminded with WAC commissioner Karl Benson, BYU president Cecil Samuelson, Fresno State president John Welty, Nevada president Milt Glick and ESPN to spring the Cougars.

Benson notified Welty in an Aug. 13th email that he had talked with Burke Magnus, ESPN director of collegiate sports programs, but that the network was not willing to renegotiate its agreement with the WAC "until after the BYU deal gets done."

In another email, Benson told WAC members: "I talked to BYU reps several times over the weekend and they are getting close to finalizing the deal with ESPN. … It appears BYU is prepared to go forward despite not getting the exact number they were hoping for. … Assuming they reach a deal today Pres. Samuelson will then call for a special meeting of the Church Council — more than likely Wednesday — to recommend the deal to go independent in football and to join the WAC in all other sports. It is expected that the [Board of Trustees] will approve the recommendation."

As the deal began to come together, Albrecht gleefully wrote on Aug. 17 that Boise State president Bob Kustra's "world is crumbling around him and he is desperate."

Kustra had guided Boise State out of the WAC and into the Mountain West in June.

"All signatures are in place. I don't think either John [Welty] or Milt [Glick] has $5 million to buy their way out," wrote Albrecht, referring to the WAC's hefty penalty for teams leaving the conference.

But the deal disintegrated when Welty and Glick turned their backs on the deal hours after receiving an offer to join the Mountain West from commissioner Craig Thompson.

Thompson declined — through a spokesman — to comment Thursday night.

Comments

[Will Smithrock]

How will Nevada and Fresno State both come up with $5MM to buy their way out of the WAC? They were both already in the hole with their budgets and now they will get less money than they did in the WAC.

[It all hinges on BYU's response by Sept 1...]

If BYU jumps ship, then they'll have to pay. If they stay in the MWC, Nevada and Fresno St. may owe nothing. At the end of the "Project" agreement, a clause was issued that said "In the event that no written agreement is executed by BYU on or before Sept. 1, 2010 ... then this resolution is terminated"

Meaning, if BYU doesn't live up to their end of the deal, Nevada and FSU owe nothing.

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/25/2054186/dogs-fee-hinges-on-byu.html#storylink=mirelated#ixzz0xqS1Afzi

[Jeff]

Every single MWC team should be ticked @ ESPN for colluding with the WAC to steal their best team!

How dastardly. and why would USU be so happy to see Boise State in a bad way?
Wow.

I think the WAC and BYU got what they deserved, and good for Fresno and Nevada for scooting. Sounds like they came to Boise's rescue if you ask me. Fresno and Nevada and Boise is a great tri-rivalry, sounds like they decided to stick together.

[Will Smithrock]

Why would every MWC team be mad at ESPN, which is where they all want to be seen playing (instead of "the mtn") anyway?

Maybe the WAC can convince several schools to ditch the MWC and get out of the tv contract that has been killing all of those programs.

Reports are saying that if BYU leaves, the MWC's tv contract with Comcast/CBS is void, since Utah already left.

The best of the MWC can head back to the WAC and get in on the ESPN deal.

[Will Smithrock]

Correction to above comment:

No team can be seen if they play on "the mtn" unless they have DirecTV. That leaves out 75 percent of the country.

[supra foot]

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