MWC rebellion aimed at helping only MWC -- and probably won't

The Mountain West can push all it wants. Threaten the BCS to the top of the ... Mountain. Go to Capitol Hill to present its case.

Go ahead, hold those Congressional hearings. If that happens, then hold on. The floater that the league threw into the BCS punch bowl Friday will seem like a fragrant wedge of lemon if the Mountain West bullies the BCS any further.

Kyle Whittingham and Utah brought home $10 million from the Sugar Bowl last month. (US Presswire)

If you missed the news early Friday, the Mountain West went rogue, essentially threatening to gut the BCS from within. It spent Thursday and Friday presenting its case to Capitol Hill legislators. It hired a powerful D.C. lobbying firm. Friday, Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson held a teleconference promising "a proposal for change" to the BCS within two weeks.

The unsaid message: If you don't change, BCS, the government will do it for you.

With the wolves once again nipping at the heels of the sport's power brokers, everyone needs to chill. There are three bills in the legislative system that would bring down the BCS. The Mountain West is attacking its own system from within. There's a reason the 66 schools in the six power conferences have all the leverage. If pushed too far, they can blow up the BCS and go back to prehistoric times.

Remember back before the Bowl Coalition and Alliance, all the way back in the '80s? Remember the old-boy network, cigars in the back room, bowl deals being made between exhales of Cohibas? That's the sport's stone age, the reason we have the BCS. Heck, in that system, even mighty Joe Paterno arguably got screwed out of three national championships.

You know who wins in that scenario? Certainly not the Mountain West. Really, not anyone outside the 66.

If you blew up the BCS today, the Big 12 would be able to strike a deal with the Fiesta Bowl, the SEC would be with the Sugar Bowl, the Big East and/or the ACC would go to the Orange Bowl. The Pac-10 and Big Ten would be locked into the Rose Bowl for perpetuity the same way they were before the BCS horned in with the likes of Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas (twice!). Notre Dame would be Notre Dame, a mercenary going to the highest bidder.

Believe me, no one wants that. Why? Because the Sun Belt Conference would lose the $3 million it gets from the BCS each year for basically contributing nothing to the process. The non-BCS leagues would lose most of an estimated $55 million they made the past three years thanks to Boise State, Hawaii and Utah getting to BCS bowls.

Utah brought home approximately $10 million from the Sugar Bowl last month. Part of that money allowed the Mountain West's other teams to actually go to bowls. In case you haven't noticed, the Las Vegas Bowl isn't exactly a financial windfall.

The money allowed Louisiana-Lafayette to buy tennis balls. It allowed the SMU track team to gas up the van.

"Everybody needs to be careful," one source close to the situation said. "We don't need to go back to the '80s, darks rooms, behind closed doors. We don't need that again. The fact that we've got 34 bowls, more opportunity than ever before (is a plus). The regular season means more than it ever has. We need to work within the system. Now is the time for cooler heads."

This isn't a playoff argument. That's for another time. The Mountain West wants what's best for the Mountain West. It's basically whining that Utah didn't win a national championship in 2008. Fair enough, but go to talk to JoePa about getting screwed. Utah wouldn't have been that close to a national championship without the BCS.

In the old dark, smoke-filled room days 12-0 Utah -- the nation's only undefeated team -- would have been playing in that same Las Vegas Bowl, 1,700 miles and light years from the Sugar Bowl.

Sure, the six power conferences are rich, bloated, greedy and selfish. They also have the hammer. If they blow up the BCS, only they prosper. That's why what the Mountain West did Friday not only angered The Big Six, it also pissed off the remaining other four leagues.

"This is a shock, but to call a friggin' press conference and not say anything ..." said one official from one of those non-BCS conferences.

The nine-team Mountain West is largely considered to be the best conference without an automatic BCS berth. It has competed favorably with the other power conferences. Utah, BYU and TCU all finished in the final AP top 25. The Utes finished No. 2 after beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

"It's been building to this point ..." Thompson said. "On the field we're beating people, playing people. ... Why are we not in consideration to play in the national championship game?"

But its mysterious proposal hangs in the air like smog. The Mountain West presidents already are on record as of last month saying they want an automatic berth for their league. On the face of it, this doesn't look like a proposal that would benefit all of its non-BCS peers. One source said the Mountain West would ask for more input from computers and less from the polls that are perceived to be biased from non-traditional programs. But we've been down that road before. It's the one that kept undefeated Auburn out of the championship game in 2004.

Besides, there is already a review process in place that could give the Mountain West an automatic berth in 2012 and 2013 on a test basis. It's contained in something called the "standards document" that the Mountain West has refused to sign. It also hasn't signed on with ESPN for the BCS contract that begins with the 2011 bowls.

A formal agreement was reached between the BCS and ESPN in November. A source said all the conferences have either signed or intend to sign the document, except the Mountain West.

This is the conference's version of a silent protest. It's also a little bit hypocritical to share in the BCS profits while withholding support of it.

It sucks that there is that hazy line that between the haves and have-nots. The shame is that the Mountain West presidents want change -- now! It took us 139 years of college football to get this point. On the teleconference, Thompson sounded like a man with a gun in his back. Such posturing was totally out of character for him. The man is bright, young, well-liked, a candidate to be the next Pac-10 commissioner. That candidacy is probably done for now. The Mountain West presidents have suddenly gotten the idea that their 10-year-old league that has played in two BCS bowls is suddenly worthy of a promotion.

That's why this Mountain West putsch will fail. It has agreed to the current parameters. Things could change, but not until after the 2014 bowls -- at the earliest. When Tulane president Scott Cowen used the threat of Congressional intervention in 2004 to get more BCS access, he represented all 54 non-BCS schools.

The Mountain West looks like it's lobbying for the Mountain West. In that case, any proposal it brings to the table will be voted down 10-1. That's how much rancor there is out there from the 10 other leagues.

"The system that was meant to address access has worked," said a high-ranking non-BCS source.

Are they hearing that on Capitol Hill?