San Diego St considers Big East and Mountain West

Published Jan. 9, 2013 12:15 a.m. ET

foxsports

San Diego State is planning to attend the Big East's meetings on Friday, but the school has been talking to the Mountain West about possibly staying in that conference rather than switching leagues.

Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco said Tuesday he doesn't anticipate San Diego State will have a decision at the upcoming meeting in Dallas.

''Every indication is they want to stay,'' he said after attending a BCS commissioners meeting. ''Whether they will or not we still don't know. We're still talking.

''If I had to guess, it would shake out in a couple of weeks.''

San Diego State has committed to join the Big East as a football-only member in 2013. The school plans to have the rest of its sports compete in the Big West.

The Aztecs joined the Big East along with Boise State, when the rebuilding conference was attempting to put together a coast-to-coast football league. But the Broncos backed out last month after the most recent Big East defections and struck a deal to stay in the Mountain West. Now SDSU is looking into doing the same, but the MW has to decide if it wants the Aztecs back.

The Mountain West recently restructured its television deal with CBS Sports Network, which allowed the conference to cut a deal with Boise State that could allow the Broncos and their powerful football program to make more revenue than the rest of the schools in the league.

Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said conference leaders have been trying to get San Diego State up to speed on the new TV deal, while considering whether to go to 12 members or stick with 11.

''We're just trying to understand how the league is going to work,'' he said. ''Trying to understand what their wants, desires, concerns might be and then our board would get together and say, `Yeah, we can live with that,' or otherwise.''

Part of the Boise State deal with the Mountain West was an agreement that the conference would first consider San Diego State it if did look for another member. The agreement set an exclusive window for San Diego State that closes Jan. 31.

''The reason for that deadline is I took 10-team (football) schedule last week and tore it up,'' Thompson said. ''Before we go to the computer and ask it to create an 11-team schedule we ought to see if it's going to be a 12-team schedule.''