LARAMIE – Ryan Thorburn sat down with Wyoming athletics director Tom Burman on Friday to discuss the latest round of conference realignment, which will have a direct impact on the Pokes and the Mountain West.
Listen to the Interview Here:
Thorburn: What is your reaction to Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State leaving the Mountain West to join the Pac-12 in July of 2026?
Burman: Well, no doubt disappointed just like our fan base. We’ve had, especially with Colorado State, one of the great rivalries in college sports and to see them leave to go to a different league, (I feel) disappointment but I wouldn’t say complete shock. I knew this was a possibility. I know I believed, and I think most people in the Mountain West believed, that this may happen, but it would be down the road after Oregon State and Washington State used the full two years that the NCAA had given them to try to figure out a path forward. We believed that they would use that whole time frame to see what happened in the ACC, Big 12 and then make a move as it relates to the Mountain West. The Mountain West did have conversations with them about a reverse merger, joining this league. Unfortunately, that was not something they were interested in.
Thorburn: We’ve seen realignment from coast to coast. How do conferences make these decisions on which teams to invite to their conference?
Burman: It is a complex issue. All Division I conferences at this level have a third party media rights evaluator, someone who takes a look at institutions and helps guide these decisions or when you’re doing a television contract helps you negotiate your television contract with the entities involved. But all of them use basically the same metrics. Generally, you would find that those metrics include media market, size of the media market obviously, media performance – so your viewership, how many households are watching – and fan base engagement, which often looks at social media following and streaming numbers. Fan base profiling is a demographic analysis that’s used to look at the household income, the demographic buying patterns of people in those markets. Obviously, athletic performance plays a role. And then miscellaneous attractive drivers. Those things could be like, is it a championship city? Could it host a bowl game? What’s the airport situation? What’s the travel in and out of there? Etcetera. All of those are generally the same across all these metrics and decision-making processes.
Thorburn: Obviously the state of Wyoming can’t do much about the market size, but with the brand, One Wyoming, it’s the only university in the entire state; all of the alumni on the Front Range which factor into that Denver market and college television viewing; the facilities that (UW) has here on campus; the support from the state; the fan base, I mean, we saw the crowds last year at the War and so far this year with Idaho and BYU coming up; do you feel like (all of) that should make Wyoming relevant at the FBS level going forward?
Burman: Absolutely. And I do believe we are relevant; we will stay relevant as an FBS conference and member. We have no desire to look at going down. The state of Wyoming is not a place that goes down; we fight, we grind away to stay relevant. I think we will. What we can bring to the table is one of the most engaged fan bases in the West. We can bring to the table good facilities and improving facilities. And a great, not good, a great Saturday game day atmosphere, especially compared to many of the schools that we’re going to be compared to. So, we're proud of who we are, we wear it with pride, and we’re striving and will continue to strive to be as relevant as possible.
Thorburn: All realignment is really driven by football, the amount of media dollars you can get from football and now the access to the College Football Playoff. Obviously, there are still going to be four power conferences right now in the current landscape, which is ever changing. The Pac-12 is now trying to be that top fifth conference to get that automatic bid. The Mountain West is in position to do that as well. Do you see the path forward where the Mountain West is still relevant in the College Football Playoff scenario going forward now competing with the Pac-12 for that (automatic bid)?
Burman: Absolutely. As you look forward, there will be, instead of a Group of 5, a Group of 6 leagues competing for that one spot. So, whether it’s the American, the Mountain West, the (Pac-12), the Sun Belt, the MAC, whomever, we’re all competing for that one spot to have access to the national championship. I think you’re going to be able to do it from the Mountain West. You’re going to have to schedule creatively just like they’re going to have to schedule creatively. And you’re going to have to win games. At the end of the day, it’s going to take (a great) team probably to knock that door down and get in. We can do it under the league that will be available to us in 2026. We’ll have eight members, which is the number we need, but I think it would be wise, and I know the conference agrees with this, we need to look at expansion quickly and we need to be aggressive with the expansion model. We have a lot of money coming our way. We’ve got to look at it and say, hey, how can we be as competitive as possible.
Thorburn: How important is it for the remaining eight (Mountain West programs) to stick together and, as you said, get aggressive with adding some teams?
Burman: Very. If (these) eight can stay together and we can add some teams, we can really be a good league. There is some exposure obviously. The Pac-12 has six members today, so they need to add two (more). You’ve got to have eight per the NCAA. So, they’re going to add two more and it appears they’re looking to the Southeast part of the country for (an) additional two or possibly four. If they fail, it’s likely they’re going to circle back to the Mountain West, and we could lose an additional member or two members. So that’s why expansion is very, very important.
Thorburn: The Mountain West has the scheduling agreement (for football in 2025) with Oregon State and Washington State. The teams that are leaving (will) have significant penalties to pay for leaving the Mountain West for the Pac-12. The Pac-12 has a penalty for poaching. What do those dollars look like and how will (the money) be used going forward?
Burman: The situation is this: The penalty the schools have to pay when they depart is based on the revenue earned the last year they’re in the league. So, based on forecasting we expect that number to be in the neighborhood of $20 million. So, each of the four schools would owe $20 million as their departure penalty to the Mountain West. So, that’s $80 million. Then the scheduling alliance, the scheduling agreement the Mountain West signed with the Pac-12 last year for this season had a non-poaching clause in it, which they are going to be on the hook – ‘they’ meaning the Pac-12 – for $43 million payable to the Mountain West Conference. So, there is a lot of revenue coming in. I think it would be wise for us to use those dollars to be as aggressive as we can be. Having said that, I am not a supporter of (having) the majority of those dollars going out to bring in other schools. What I would like to see is an investment also in the schools that are here. In reality, we all know this is driven by football. Some of this money should go into football programs (already) in the Mountain West Conference so we can be as competitive as possible and do everything within our power to be the premiere Group of 6 conference out there.
Thorburn: Three of the members that are leaving were not original members of the WAC or original members of the Mountain West like Wyoming. But you have Colorado State, right up the road here, 115 meetings since 1899, you’ve played the Rams every year since World War II ended, there’s the Bronze Boot trophy, one of the greatest trophies in all of college football. What do you think will happen to the Border War after 2025?
Burman: I believe the Border War will continue. I have talked to John (Weber), the AD at Colorado State, and I believe that’s what he thinks. It’s in all of our best interests that we play CSU in multiple sports every year. 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.
*UW Press Release
Don't forget to sign up for our email list, and follow us on our socials!
Subscribe to receive our newsletter here (no spam, we promise): Subscribe
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pokesnews
X (formerly known as Twitter): https://x.com/Pokes_News
Comments