The details are sparse and they come from Natalie Meilser who is a long time reporter for Colorado State for The Denver Post:
I'm hearing from a number of sources that the Mountain West/BYU impasse could be resolved as soon as Thursday with all indications that the Cougars will remain in the MWC.
BYU beat writer Jay Drew from The Salt Lake Tribune contacted Meisler and was able to get more information on the topic:
Reached by telephone Wednesday night, Meisler stressed that "it is not 100 percent" certain that the issue has been resolved, but that "I feel good about it."
She said her sources are schools "in and out of the league" and that there are at least three sources telling her the deal is headed in this direction.
So, the key question is what type of concession will the Mountain West make to BYU regarding the television deal. In the Memorandum of Understanding, details came out that BYU would not only keep all money for games on BYU-TV, but they would also show WAC championship events that were not being aired on ESPN. That concession seems fair for BYU and the Mountain West, since even with their current television deal not all postseason events are on any of the three league networks.
Dick Harmon from the Deseret News has covered sports in the state of Utah for a long time sent out this tweet shortly after the news came about the possibility of BYU staying in the Mountain West.
I think BYU's priority is to go indy and if the MWC wants to deal, it would have to do backflips for Y. Believe it when I see it -BYU/MWC
Dick Harmon
Harmonwrites
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Report: BYU To Stay With Mountain West With Announcement As Early As Thursday
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Comments
This is what makes the most sense to me.
BYU and the MWC will wait to see what happens with the BCS automatic qualification for 2012 and 2013. If the MWC one BYU stays. If not they go independent.
I don’t know that any concessions are needed for the do nothing option, especially with the death of the WAC.
I do like the idea of conference championships on national TV. I would think these are already aired on the MWC network for the MWC.
A general loosening of the MWC exclusivity agreement would be nice. If none of the contracted networks want to show a game, the home team should be free to negotiate their own TV deal.
BCS Evolution -- Punctuating the Equilibrium - twitter
by Ben Prather on Aug 26, 2010 1:34 AM EDT reply actions
Until ESPN reports something...
I won’t believe any of this. They are the ones who will influence the outcome of this debacle, because they are the ones trying to lure BYU with $$$ for their games, and the MWC will have to sign off on that.
Until then, don’t believe the hype.
by NV_Wolf_Pack on Aug 26, 2010 3:24 PM EDT reply actions
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