Friday, February 22, 2008

An Open Letter to Commissioner Thompson

Commissioner Thompson:

With today's announcement of an agreement to distribute The Mtn. on DirecTV, I feel moved to congratulate you for your lengthy pursuit of a viable network for Mountain West sports. The MWC's precarious status outside college football's cartel makes today's distribution deal the best news for the conference since Utah's invitation to the '05 Fiesta Bowl.

Starting today, or perhaps by September 1st, a team from the Mountain West won't suffer an exposure deficit for outstanding performance in conference games.

Starting today, a hot Mountain West team will be visible to the pollsters and pundits who control casting in college sports tournaments and bowls.

Starting today, the Mountain West can offer non conference opponents a real boost in visibility, and not simply an old fashioned whooping in the safety of wide western obscurity.

Starting today, the difference between the Mountain West and the other non-cartel conferences stretched much wider, and the corresponding difference between our conference and the cartel conferences shrunk.

Thank you for your tireless, and often thankless leadership for the Mountain West Conference. I, and other fans far from the conference's "footprint", look forward to seeing my team's conference games in 2008.

Most sincerely,
The Wimple

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