John Griffin ran from denial to acceptance in 4.4 flat.
Griffin, the former Wyoming wide receiver, longtime Denverite, stalwart humanitarian and one of the Cowboys’ iconic “Black 14,” read about the reported collapse of the Mountain West and spun out of anger’s attempt at an arm tackle. He juked bargaining. He trucked depression.
“First off, I thought, ‘That’s interesting,’” the ex-Pokes wideout said of CSU’s leap to the Pac-12 late last week. “And my second thought was, ‘Well, good for them because they’re going to get some more of that TV money, which will help them sustain the program and get some good players, (more money) for facilities.’
“Then I’m questioning, ‘Gosh, what is Wyoming going to do? Should they stay in the Mountain West?’”
If another, big-money lifeline isn’t coming for the Pokes? Absolutely. Because ex-Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson, to be frank, isn’t entirely sure that sexier lifeline is out there.
“Wyoming is fantastic,” Thompson, who was hired at the inception of the league in 1998 and retired in December 2022, told me by phone Tuesday.
“(But) the population hurts them. (They’re) competitive, yes. (They’ve got) facilities, yes. (They’re) good neighbors — absolutely, positively. But the challenge is — and you know the scorecard these days — that TV networks are paying for households and for eyeballs. And Wyoming just doesn’t have that. It has everything else.”
Make no mistake: The Cowboys deserve better. Since 2015, Wyoming’s reached six bowls and won the Bronze Boot seven times. Over that same stretch, the Rams have bowled three times, the last coming in 2017, and beaten the Pokes just twice.
Alas, when it comes to network executives, media markets are five-touchdown favorites over football merit. CSU, Boise State, Fresno State and San Diego State are headed west in 2026; Air Force, another longtime rival/partner, is reportedly looking east, to the AAC, where peers Army and Navy already reside.
“It’s too much to try to keep track of,” Griffin sighed. “It’s all about the Benjamins.”
Look, none of the latest round of conference realignment feels sustainable; almost all of it feels goofy. But until those TV fat cats reset the Monopoly board in five or six years, when more broadcast contracts expire, it’s every nerd for themselves.
“Very interesting times,” Thompson continued. “I told my wife, ‘Can you imagine if I had still been commissioner?’”
True story: Thompson was on a fly-fishing junket to Alaska this past Thursday, getting ready to hop on a floatplane when his cell phone blew up.
“You can’t get from this place and back to Denver in less than 24 or 36 hours,” he laughed. “There was internet service up in the lodge, but I would’ve been getting non-stop phone calls from presidents and ADs trying to handle this.”
He thinks Wyoming AD Tom Burman could handle it best by staying the course. By circling the wagons, preserving the MW brand and backfilling with peer schools or smaller schools with upside.
In other words, do to the Sun Belt or Missouri Valley or Big Sky what the SEC did to the Big 12 (so long, Texas and Oklahoma); what the Big 12 then did to the AAC (so long, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF) and the Pac-12 (so long, CU, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah); and what the Pac-12 just did to the Mountain West. Heavyweights eat the middleweights, who turn around and gobble up the lightweights — college football’s new circle of life.
“(You’ve got) a ton of revenue,” the former MW boss continued. “You’ve got a television package that might be — it will be — a little different in two years. But you’re sitting on an excess of $100 million, so you can supplement any TV package that might be more viable than any package they’ve ever had. But they don’t have to worry about money,”
Thompson estimated a get-out fee of $18 million from CSU and each of the other three Pac-12 departees, so there’s $72 million added to the MW’s coffers. As part of the Pac-2 + MW “scheduling alliance” — never, ever enter an “alliance” with a league bigger than yours, by the way — and for breaking the no-poaching clause in that alliance, the 2Pac owes the Mountain West another $43 million penalties.
So there’s a fresh pot of about $115 million coming in. Or roughly the same amount of money the Rockies still owe Kris Bryant.
“(The Pac-12) did it with two (members left) and resurrected it. It can be done,” Thompson said. “And I would just say, ‘Look, unless and until another (MW) member leaves, we are legitimate. We have a league. We’re in the College Football Playoff meeting room. We’re still vying for one of the five automatic bids by being a conference champion.’”
Logic won’t heal bruised egos. Or seal old wounds. At least Burman and CSU AD John Weber have vowed to keep talking, promised to keep all border options open.
“It’s in all of our best interests that we play CSU in multiple sports every year,” Burman told GoWyo.com recently. “It’s 66 miles away. College athletics has lost its balance and we’re traveling sports teams all over the country to compete. This is one that just makes sense. And I would say, let’s just not screw it up.”
We’re too late on that front, my friend. Far, far, far too late.
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