...and found it amusing that TH was already aware of the discussions when Thompson went pubic with them.

He made it a point to single Thompson out and sort of call him out on it without being specific. I thought it was patently obvious that Hair “thought” he had the deal closed with the Zags but that it needed BYU for the deal to work and w/o us the Zags were walking. It made no sense to name-drop BYU as a team that didn’t inquire about expansion when there were 5 other teams that did and he only named one of them. I think it was obvious that the other teams who had inquired about expansion were schools that wouldn’t add any marquee or monetary value to the conference.

I think Thompson’s last 2 TV deals have really hurt the MWC both from lack of exposure nationally as well as monetarily and he’s desperate to get the conference in a stronger position next year to negotiate a better TV deal. For him to be able to do that he needs a name brand football program that can deliver butts in seats as well as eyeballs in living rooms. Schools like New Mexico St, N Dakota, etc just don’t do it. Neither do basketball only schools like Gonzaga, Grand Canyon etc.

Under his watch the MWC has lost a ton of prestige nationally and has been leapfrogged by the AAC. He’s gotta be feeling the heat.