COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Sports Network) - Brigham Young University has reportedly decided to leave the Mountain West Conference, which subsequently invited Fresno State and Nevada to join.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, BYU will go independent in football and
re-join the Western Athletic Conference in all non-football sports beginning
in the fall of 2011.
The report states that BYU will hold a press conference early next week to
announce the move. The Cougars previously belonged to the WAC from 1962-99
before moving to the new MWC when it was formed in 1999.
It is unknown whether or not Fresno State and/or Nevada plan to join the
conference, which released an official statement confirming the invitations.
Both schools currently compete in the WAC -- the Bulldogs since 1992 and the
Wolf Pack since 2000.
The MWC began with eight members and had added just one school while
subtracting none before this summer, when college athletics conferences
went through a dramatic makeover. The MWC, which finally signed the BCS
agreement this year, is already set, in 2011, to gain WAC football powerhouse
Boise State while losing Utah to what will be called the Pac-12.