now. And BYU being in it would only bring us down further. Fewer nationally prominent programs to play (none) in the MWC. Worse TV deal.

San Diego State's first NCAA win and Top 25 ranking EVER was in our last season there--2011. In recent years, they've gone back to who they have historically been--a team trying to get to the Big Dance by winning an auto-bid.

New Mexico hasn't been to a Sweet 16 since the early 1970's and is presently dreadful. UNLV is garbage, and has been for several years. They have 3 total NCAA tournament wins in the quarter century since Tark left.

Air Force, Boise State, and San Jose State have never won an NCAA tournament game.

The MWC, in case you haven't noticed, is down to being a double digit auto-bid league.

Here's perhaps the most embarrassing stat overall: Since the MWC was formed in 2000, it has 19 NCAA tournament wins--and that's counting wins for Nevada, USU, and Fresno that were won long before they were in the MWC.

In that same span of time, Gonzaga alone has 26. That's to say nothing of the NCAA tourney wins by SMC, Pacific, San Diego, and Pepperdine during that time-frame. When the best program in one conference outperforms a conference of 11 teams, said conference is a complete laughingstock, no matter how many fans trickle into their arenas.

You must be Hair Thompson himself to think that the MWC is anything other than junk in both football and basketball. There was a time for both when that was not the case. But today, sadly, it's a middling G5 football league (the AAC is much better), and it's the third best basketball league in the West.