Contraction should be the priority before expansion. I've even posted on the MWCboard, amongst all our piers, if anyone can think of a reason why SJSU is in the MWC. The best answer I got is because the newcomer Wac-off teams wanted another California scrub because of the perceived voting block between UNM, AFA, Wyo, and CSU.
We need to kick their ass to the curb. Two games for everyone in conference against a 330+ RPI team at basketball changes your league from a 4 bid league to a 2 bid league. They have to go. They cost the conference millions a year in revenue because of their consistently shitty basketball team.
At football there isn't much difference between Utep, San Joser, and a Wichita State team that would be re-starting their football team from scratch. They all suck. Still, Utep puts asses in seats and they fit the geographic footprint. Utep fans are loyal. They've been watching Utep suck at football for years and that doesn't stop them from watching. In addition, they bring a great conference rivalry with UNM as well as a basketball program that would flourish in the MWC. San Jose can't put 15,000 in their stands in a city of 3 million plus.
While we're booting out turds, we should get rid of Hawaii as well. They're an impossible road trip to a place where they get to keep their own t.v. contract. They have no business in the MWC, when they're in the middle of the Pacific ocean.
This conference needs to focus on the same things we've always needed to focus on. We need to tighten up the geographic footprint to minimize costs. We need to surround ourselves with member institutions we share cultural similarities with. Both football and basketball would benefit with a recruiting footprint in west Texas and Kansas. That would greatly benefit the MWC.
It's extremely important that we do what's necessary to get rid of San Joser and Hawaii. Then we can add Utep and Wichita, and make our conference the 6th best basketball league in America again.
I like this set-up.
MWC East
Wichita
Utep
UNM
Wyo
CSU
AFA
MWC West
Boise
Fresno
SDSU
Nevada
UNLV
USU
It's a perfect geographical split down the continental divide. It cuts down on travel costs. It eliminates dead weight. It adds two new states to the footprint at the expense of markets that either don't care about the local product(San Jose) or don't share their t.v. revenue(Hawaii).
It also leaves us the opportunity for BYU and Houston to join if we need to get to 14 by keeping the conference smaller and more efficient.
Wyoming, CSU, UNM, and AFA need to take the lead again, and get rid of the California crap and the small asian country 3000 miles away from everyone. We need to drive contraction so we can expand smartly. Adding San Joser and Hawaii was a knee jerk reaction based solely on survival. We need to correct that mistake as soon as possible because it will become more difficult to correct it the longer they're here.