Mountain West AD wants no part of Pac-12, fears conference will lose autonomy

Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman wants nothing to do with the Pac-12, revealing to Cowboys insider Ryan Thoburn that he fears the conference will lose its autonomy soon enough anyway.

“If the Mountain West Conference all would stay together & not be fooled into thinking there’s something greater out there & joining a Power 5 league because the Pac-12, no matter who they add, is not going to be an Autonomous 5 league for very long,” Burman prefaced before saying, “It’s clear & everybody around the country is talking about that. It’s just a matter of time & that will change its financial model dramatically, in my opinion, speaking for Tom Burman.” Burman later told Thoburn that he doesn’t see Oregon State, Wazzu, Cal, and Stanford all having the same goals in realignment.

“The four remaining (Pac-12) teams – Oregon State, Washington State, Call, Stanford – two (sets) of very different universities,” Burman prefaced before saying, “Washington State and Oregon State are more similar to many of the Mountain West schools. Cal and Stanford are very unique institutions, probably unique nationally. So, they’re not probably ideally suited to be the four (to say), all right, we all have the same plan and the same goals because I’m guessing they’re a little different.”

Pac-12 should have negotiated exit fees as the Mountain West did

As Action Network’s Brett McMurphy shared, the Mountain West essentially preserved itself as a conference by installing exit fees for any schools looking to leave the conference; fees up to $34 million to be exact.

“Who knows what happens w/Mountain West but only reason it exists today is because former commish Craig Thompson pushed for a decade to get presidents to approve the current exit fees ($17M w/year’s notice, $34M less than year),” McMurphy prefaced before saying, “What was MW’s exit fee before 2021? There wasn’t one.”

You know who didn’t have an exit fee at all? The Pac-12. With sagging television ratings due to rarely having a legitimate College Football Playoff contender, the conference that never envisioned failing — or, perhaps did and simply played the role of would-be hero who just couldn’t keep everyone together — is now on death’s doorstep.