Mountain West Conference

The Mountain West Conference (abbreviated as either "MW" or "MWC") is a group of colleges and universities in the Western United States, who play NCAA Division I sports against one another. In football, the MW plays in the top-level Division I FBS.

The league was formed in 1999 when eight schools split from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Most of the original members had been members of the WAC before it grew from 10 schools to 16 in 1996.

Due to a major realignment of Division I conferences, the MW and Conference USA announced plans to merge into one conference, possibly for the 2013–14 school year.^[1] However, because of money issues, the conferences backed away from a full merger. They planned to form an alliance for scheduling and television purposes.^[2] After both conferences added more schools, they backed out of the planned alliance.

1. ↑ Katz, Andy (February 13, 2012). "MWC, C-USA to form new conference". ESPN.com. Retrieved February 19, 2012.
2. ↑ McMurphy, Brett (April 17, 2012). "Conference USA-Mountain West merger "unlikely"". College Football Insider. CBSSports.com. Retrieved April 27, 2012.^{[permanent dead link]}