Boise State to stay in Mountain West after all

Though it had previously committed to moving the Broncos into the Big East for football in 2013 and the Big West for all other sports, including the women’s soccer program, Boise State University announced today via news releases that the program has reversed course and will remain a member of the Mountain West Conference for all sports.

Sophomore Shannon Schueren

According to a report from Brett McMurphy on ESPN.com, Boise State will have to pay up to $5 million dollars as an exit fee for breaking its contract with the Big East and will also likely owe the Big West for similar reasons.  

The Broncos are coming off of a season in which they were 9-9-2 overall and 4-2-1 in the MWC. The third-seeded Broncos were knocked out in the first round of the conference tournament by sixth-seeded Nevada, resulting in an announcement six days later that 13-year head coach Steve Lucas was not having his contract renewed.  Earlier this month the university announced Jim Thomas, a former assistant coach from the University of Washington, as the program’s new head coach.

The 2012 campaign was the second season in the MWC for Boise State. In 2011 the team was 2-4-0 in their conference debut and 8-11-1 overall.

The ESPN report also states that San Diego State, which was making the same Big East and Big West split move is also requesting to return to the MWC. The Aztecs were the MWC women’s soccer regular season champions at 7-0-0 and 14-1-0 overall in 2012. After winning the conference tournament, the top ten ranked Aztecs reached the third round of the NCAA tournament with wins against Cal State Northridge and Cal before falling to UCLA, a fellow top ten team.

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