If you were Hair what moves would you make?

Leadership can be real important to the conference's success. What moves would you make and it does not have to be just football?

I don't know if I got the "Hair" reference...but I would immediately look to relocate the Basketball Tournament. Las Vegas is actually a good spot to have the tournament. However, I would move it to the Orleans from UNLV campus. That is a MAJOR disadvantage to every team not called the Rebels. I would also look at other neutral-site locations, such as Denver, Salt Lake, Dallas, Los Angeles, etc. and would also look closely at the analysis around having the regular season champ host the tournament.



I would next look at how to expand the conference to strengthen both competition and the viability of the Mtn. Two obvious places to look are California and Texas....both states have multiple untapped television markets and could be important pieces to the conference's footprint, future bowl alignment, recruiting, and TV sets for distribution of the Mtn. Fresno State and Houston are common candidates discussed.



I would also look at places to host a conference championship game, such as Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego, etc.



Finally, I would push like crazy to re-negotiate the TV contracts, playing the card that the conference is adding Boise State and there is a material change in circumstances...and way more money for everyone involved through new distribution outlets. I would bring ESPN, FOX, ABC, CBS, and NBC to the table. I actually think there could be a real possibility to turn the Mtn. into a real, viable, successful, and profitable venture. Think of it...you could have a scenario where CBS or NBC had "The Mountain" on CBS/NBCsports! Right before or after a Notre Dame game or a quality SEC match-up on Saturday! Throw FOX or ESPN the Thursday and Friday night rights to a half-dozen MWC games and get The Mtn.'s basketball games on CBSsports.

Get a hairstyle less than 30 years old, or buy a really, really big hat. Appearances matter, folks!

Convince the bottom feeders that it is in their best interest with how things are trending to bend over backwards for BYU, TCU and BSU when it comes to TV and money sharing. Of course, might be too late. Fact is, they have jobbed BYU and Utah for years now, and are about to get their payback, and it won't be pretty for them.

Convince the bottom feeders to dummy down their schedule for next season. Get 4 non-conference games they can win. They can schedule the money games against Texas and Tennessee once we are a BCS conference.

Wickchad84087 wrote:
Convince the bottom feeders to dummy down their schedule for next season. Get 4 non-conference games they can win. They can schedule the money games against Texas and Tennessee once we are a BCS conference.

We can't just schedule D1-AA teams though. We need to beat BCS teams in order to improve the rankings in our favor. Certainly no more Texas or Oklahoma for teams other than the big three (though I actually think AFA could pull off an upset this year over the Sooners) until we get AQ but we do need to beat some mid-tier BCS teams if we even want to have a shot.



I actually think we'll do pretty good this year in the non-con as long as every steps up and takes care of business early. The MWC coaches should be spending every waking hour preparing for their non-con foes. If they happen to stumble a bit in conference, so be it. They can worry about conference championships after the conference is invited into the BCS.



We need to win at least 80% of these games:

AFA - Northwestern State, @OU, Navy, @Army

BSU - Va Tech, Oregon State, @New Mexico State, Toledo, @San Jose State, La Tech, Hawaii, @Idaho, Fresno State, @Nevada, Utah State

BYU - UW, @FSU, Nevada, @Utah State, @Utah

CSU - CU, @Nevada, @Miami (OH), Idaho, @Utah

SDSU - Nicholls State, @New Mexico State, @Missouri, Utah State, Utah

TCU - Oregon State, Tennessee Tech, Baylor, @SMU, @Utah

UNLV - Wisconsin, @Utah, @Idaho, Nevada, @West Virginia, @Hawaii,

UNM - @Oregon, Texas Tech, Utah, UTEP, @New Mexico State

UW - Southern Utah, @Texas, @Toledo, Utah

The games I believe we will win are in bold, games I fully expect to lose are in red, toss-ups are in italics:

AFA - Northwestern State, @OU, Navy, @Army

BSU - Va Tech, Oregon State, @New Mexico State, Toledo, @San Jose State, La Tech, Hawaii, @Idaho, Fresno State, @Nevada, Utah State

BYU - UW, @FSU, Nevada, @Utah State, @Utah

CSU - CU, @Nevada, @Miami (OH), Idaho, @Utah

SDSU - Nicholls State, @New Mexico State, @Missouri, Utah State, Utah

TCU - Oregon State, Tennessee Tech, Baylor, @SMU, @Utah

UNLV - Wisconsin, @Utah, @Idaho, Nevada, @West Virginia, @Hawaii,

UNM - @Oregon, Texas Tech, Utah, UTEP, @New Mexico State

UW - Southern Utah, @Texas, @Toledo, Utah



These are my gut instinct reactions but I plan on doing some more in-depth analysis and will edit my choices as I do. Additionally, I'll explain why I think we can win the games in italics.

YNot wrote:
I don't know if I got the "Hair" reference

A nickname for Craig, at least on this board, is Hair Thompson, because of his prominent hair...

AFA - Northwestern State, @OU, Navy, @Army, Utah

BSU - Va Tech, Oregon State, @New Mexico State, Toledo, @San Jose State, La Tech, Hawaii, @Idaho, Fresno State, @Nevada, Utah State

BYU - UW, @FSU, Nevada, @Utah State, @Utah

CSU - CU, @Nevada, @Miami (OH), Idaho, @Utah

SDSU - Nicholls State, @New Mexico State, @Missouri, Utah State, Utah

TCU - Oregon State, Tennessee Tech, Baylor, @SMU, @Utah

UNLV - Wisconsin, @Utah, @Idaho, Nevada, @West Virginia, @Hawaii

UNM - @Oregon, Texas Tech, Utah, UTEP, @New Mexico State

UW - Southern Utah, @Texas, @Toledo, Utah

My two biggest hopes for the commissioner are that he:



1. Improves our bowl profile. We could really use a bump in the payouts and prestige from our bowl games. We have the best bowl winning percentage of any conference the last few years, and nobody besides us really cares. If ESPN didn't give us a trophy, I doubt anybody besides us would know. We should really be able to leverage this better as a strength to increase our national profile.



2. Improves the mtn distribution. This is also an untapped resource that we need to leverage better. If this channel were carried on more providers in more areas around the country, it would be easy enough to get that I think more people would tune in to our games, possibly even non-MWC fans. I wonder if OU fans would have followed us casually after our win to open the season to see if we were a fluke (especially if we hadn't laid an egg against FSU). Fans of big programs want to justify losses to teams like us, and making the mtn more available will only help expose our conference to college football fans in general. I know I spend a lot of time watching games of teams outside the MWC because I am a fan of college football. We really need to tap into this resource around the country.

Wickchad84087 wrote:
Convince the bottom feeders to dummy down their schedule for next season. Get 4 non-conference games they can win. They can schedule the money games against Texas and Tennessee once we are a BCS conference.

I like this idea. But I would have them push to schedule at least two BCS bottom feeders like Duke, Syracuse, or other mostly winnable games. The problem is they should be easily winnable except for the fact that the MWC bottom feeders have no confidence and even struggle against FCS schools. So if this strategy doesn't work then they should play the mid to bottom tier teams on the non-BS conf's to at least win against what might be perceived as the competition. Let the big boys in the conf take on the big boys from the BS

First of all, if I were hair I would stop screwing byu and start treating them better.



second i would find a way to ditch the losers in the conference and replace them with better teams like nevada, fresno state, houston, etc. then i would make sure we get an auto bid.



then i would quit and hadn the job over to someone who si not such a blowhard.

I would add some top 50 teams to the MWC. I would arrange for the bottom teams to volunteer to play in the WAC in 2011 for football only to replace the teams that we are taking. I would try to acquire the Mtn to control it, open more distribution and to profit from our rising attention. I would tell the bottom teams that if they want a money game to play against the very best teams. If you are going to lose it is better to do it to a top 10 team. Then the bottom teams need wins even if it is bad teams. Finally I would move the headquarters to Provo and arrange use of the new Production studios to promote the conference better.



Oh another thing I would do is create a new show on the Mtn of clips of the all-time plays for each school. You know the final play of the miracle bowl and Ainge's drive agains ND in the Bball tournament. That should be a good filler for all of that extra time they have on the air.