Nevada and Fresno State Shake Things Up

The conference expansion shake up is again taking place throughout college athletics. On Wednesday both the University of Nevada-Reno and Fresno State University announced that they will be joining the Mountain West Conference.

The move may not take affect until after the 2011 football season, but the Western Athletic Conference, or WAC, will now only have a grand total of six football members after that season. Earlier this summer the WAC lost it's flagship football school when Boise State announced that it is departing for the Mountain West following this season.

All of this stems off of the expansion moves from earlier in the summer that were initiated by the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences. Because of the Big Ten Network many conferences and schools are looking to create networks to increase revenue. The Pac 10 is the major reason though that the WAC is now on the edge of the cliff in college athletics.

After the Pac 10 added Colorado back in June they needed one more member to reach the twelve team plateau required for a conference championship game. That team was ultimately the University of Utah. The Utes will joine the conference along with the Buffs following this season; thus making the Pac 10 a twelve team league and possibly launching the conferences' very own network.

Following the departure of Utah, the Mountain West needed to replace the Utes and saw no better option than extending an offer to Boise State. The Broncos, who many fans have become very accustomed to in recent years, have played in two BCS games since 2005 and have won both of them. Boise State has also become a favorite of ESPN and that means big television dollars for the conference in the long hall.

The departure of Utah also means major changes for their rival BYU. The Cougars are currently looking at following the route of Notre Dame and going independant from a conference. Once again the all mighty dollar is a major factor in that decision. BYU currently has it's own television network, and wants to get out because of possibly losing that because of conference affiliation. But keep in mind that the final decision for BYU has not been made yet.

That brings us to Wednesday. Nevada and Fresno State may be out of the WAC, but what does that mean for the Big Ten and Wisconsin. Well actually more than you might think.

Currently the Big Ten has a garunteed spot in the BCS because of it's conference size. The conference also lands one team as an at-large in a BCS game at the end of the season pretty much every year. If the Mountain West continues to grow in size, and power, they could possibly look to become the next conference with an automatic qualifier. That would take away one more spot for an at-large, and that could be less for the Big Ten in the end.

So just when you thought expansion was over...it wasn't. If you think this will end anytme soon...you'll be proven wrong. And if you don't think that the move by Nevada and Fresno State won't have any impact on Wisconsin you will be wrong on that one as well.