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Mountain West decides not to add Boise State ... for now

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The Mountain West Conference’s decision Monday not to extend an invitation to Boise State tells you all you need to know about the volatile state of college football.

With rumors swirling about the Big 12 folding and the Pac-10 expanding, the Mountain West decided to postpone a decision on whether to make Boise State, presently in the Western Athletic Conference, its 10th member.

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‘We don’t have to make a decision today,’ Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said at a news conference.

The Mountain West, instead, will take a seat on the sideline until issues in the Big 12, Pac-10 and Big Ten sort themselves out.

It was a smart move. No one knows what the landscape might look like in the coming weeks or months. If the Big 12 dissolves, the Mountain West might be able to absorb six schools in the Big 12 North as the Pac-10 makes a move for the Big 12 South.

The Mountain West could still add Boise State and become a 16-school league that can make a strong case for automatic-qualifier inclusion into the Bowl Championship Series.

‘We’re all in this wonderful vortex of speculation, innuendo, hearsay, green light, go, invite, mandate, stay,’ Thompson said. ‘These are very confusing times for everyone I think,’

If the Big 12 stays together, the Mountain West can reassess the situation -- and still invite Boise State.

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‘All eyes are on Nebraska now,’ one official involved with possible Pac-10 expansion said Monday.

The Big 12 has reportedly given Nebraska (and Missouri) an ultimatum to declare loyalty to the conference. Nebraska and Missouri have been rumored to be expansion targets of the Big Ten.

If Nebraska, the key political player of the two schools, decides to stay in the Big 12, the Pac-10 will not likely pursue absorbing six Big 12 schools into a mega, 16-school conference.

One official said Monday he thought the odds were ‘60-40’ that Nebraska would stay in the Big 12.

The other development in the Pac-10 saga is Baylor possibly replacing Colorado as one of the six schools that would come to the Pac-10. There is heavy political pressure in Texas to keep the Texas schools together in any move.

The Pac-10, then, would essentially absorb the Big 12 South division: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor.

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If Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State are left orphaned by the Big 12, those schools could be attractive to the Mountain West.

What it all boils down to is: stay tuned.

‘The topic of expansion is still very much alive,’ Thompson said.

-- Chris Dufresne

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