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

NEWSFLASH: DirecTV to carry The Mtn.

Several newspapers are reporting that DirecTV will carry the mtn. starting August 1. An official announcement is expected later today.

See the Deseret Morning News, Salt Lake Tribune, Denver Post, and the San Diego Union Tribune.

DirecTV has about 15 times more subscribers than the cable networks that presently carry The Mtn., and, more importantly, DirecTV is available nationwide. The Wimple believes this distribution expansion is sufficient to lure nationwide media attention to the MWC's conference games, and give the league's top teams a comparable platform to make the case for national prominence that they have lacked.

Whereas BYU's 16-game conference winning streak has hitherto largely gone unnoticed, this kind of performance in conference now can be an asset for any Mountain West team's national perception, and ranking.

Upon official announcement, Commissioner Thompson deserves accolades and applause for the vision and incredible persistence he has displayed in creating and pursuing quality distribution for The Mtn.

17 Recruits Sign with TCU

Thirteen high school seniors and three junior-college transfers have signed letters of intent to play football at TCU. The class focuses on offense, with 4 OLs, 2 WRs, 2 TEs, 1 QB and 1 RB. 3 DBs, 1 LB and 1 DL were recruited on the other side of the ball; 1 PK fills out the class.

The standouts look to be DE Jeremy Coleman, OL Trevius Jones, PK Ross Evans, DB Chris Scott, LB Greg Burks, DB JUCO Jason Teague, and WR Sam Shutt. Coach Patterson says the JUCOs, Zach Roth (OL) and Marques Parker (WR), are expected to help immediately.

List, bios, Feisty's Write-up, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, DCTF

Update: a 14th high school senior, WR Justin Moreaux will come to TCU in the fall. Feisty's notes. Jason Teague, an LSU '07 recruit who went to a junior college instead, has enrolled at TCU to play CB.