Boise State Football talk of Wall Street
Boise State's decision to challenge the new football deal with FOX and CBS, brokered by the Mountain West Conference, is even making news in the Wall Street Journal.
An article this week in the Journal questions whether the legal moves by Boise State are just a bluff to regain control of their special TV rights agreed too in a Mountain West re-entry agreement when Boise State shunned a Big East offer to stay with the Mountain West....or are the Broncos really serious about leaving the conference for say the American Athletic Conference (AAC) considered the best conference outside the Power 5.
The AAC does have an opening because Connecticut is walking away leaving the league with 11 teams. Those teams are: Memphis, Houston, Tulane, SMU, Navy and Tulsa in one division and UCF, Temple, Cincinnati, USF, ECU in the other, now minus UCONN.
Once again, just like the Big East, the move doesn't make geographical sense for Boise State but at the same time the AAC has a TV deal with ESPN and each team receives about 7 million dollars a year. Even if BSU get's it's special bonus back from the Mountain West the TV money in the AAC is more.
Of course the Mountain West and Boise State has since released a joint statement in which they hope to come to an agreement without litigation but that remains to be seen.
Boise State's national presence isn't what it once was and if the Wall Street Journal article says anything about the Bronco's situation, it shows just the talk of BSU heading to the AAC would bring the Bronco's more meaningful national exposure, not to mention reunite BSU with ESPN which many feel helped fuel BSU's image.
I found it amusing the Journal article hinted the AAC might not want the "drama" associated with Boise State. It make BSU seem like the spoiled child of the Mountain West and quite frankly maybe that's the issue. The rest of the league is tired of Boise State getting special treatment and collectively they're flexing their muscle to make it an equal opportunity Mountain West, with or without Boise State.