Wyoming
Wyoming Fans React to Four MW Teams Leaving for Pac-12 Conference
LARAMIE — Four Mountain West programs Thursday announced intentions to join the rebuilding Pac-12 Conference before the 2026 season.
One of those is Colorado State, Wyoming’s Border War rival.
You can imagine how that is sitting with the locals. Not helping matters is the lackluster 0-2 start to the football season.
San Diego State, Fresno State and Boise State are also bolting, leaving the league, for now, with just eight member institutions: Air Force, Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah State, UNLV, San Jose State and the Cowboys.
What does it all mean?
Your guess is as good as mine. UW’s athletic department is silent. Other leaders around the conference are throwing out cookie-cutter statements, saying they will do what’s best for their university moving forward.
Will the Mountain West add any teams? Is anyone else jumping ship? Will the longest rivalry west of the Mississippi continue after next season? Is Tom Burman attempting to get the Pokes in a new league?
Right now, there are more questions than answers. Still, Wyoming fans sounded off on the world wide web bright and early this morning when the news officially broke:
John Gunn Why don’t we just add the pac 12 to the mountain west?
Jeff White The MWC tv deal expires soon and the PAC 12 will have a better one. Additionally, I doubt this over. UNLV and New Mexico are likely next because of their TV markets.
Travis WebB It’s not disloyalty, it’s smart
Bryce Marston Pac-12 Lite will dissolve in less than a decade, once all their saved up TV revenue from when that conference was legitimate disappears. People in LA, San Fran, Seattle, etc. TV markets aren’t going to care about the sheep vs Beavers when they can watch UCLA/USC/Washington/Oregon/etc. play Michigan/Ohio State/etc.
Darren Thompson IOW, Burman on a beach in the Caribbean and cannot be reached
Jon Michael Ernster So much for the Mountain West teams staying strong together. Money talks though, can’t blame them. MW still gets buy outs and the Pac buyouts – should have negotiated it higher knowing this was going to happen anyway. Oregon State and Washington State needed a temporary lifeline and had no leverage. This is why other conferences are successful, because their leadership are savages, whereas we’re stuck in the corner kicking rocks always being reactionary instead of being proactive.
Michael Swann Hopefully they are on the phone trying to negotiate a better deal!! Strike first, strike fast no mercy sir!
Travis WebB This is what happens by settling for 6-6 seasons and having a coach for 10yrs and not winning a conference championship
Todd Ayers I remember when we left the WAC people acted like there was no tomorrow. Wyoming will be playing division I (FBS) football next year. New rivalries will be made. Life will go on. That’s college football today. Expect constant change.
Rich Arner Why not invite Wyoming to the PAC 12? Why can’t Wyoming get an invite. Our fan base is more loyal than half those teams!
Garet Fowler As long as we don’t go FCS I don’t care what happens.
Mark Reid BSU, Fresno State and SDSU certainly make sense in the Pac 12. Never did think of them as true intermountain west teams. CSU on the other hand is showing its true colors and any sense of loyalty to the region by deserting to the left coast. Hope they get waxed.
Chris Krassin It’s the end of college sport as we know it. Wyoming and the rest of the schools will likely end up in the FCS division or some of the lucky ones will go to other conferences such as Air Force. So sad I’ve already stopped watching college sports other than Wyoming and that will most likely be the end of this as well.
Miles Williams CSU has a hard time winning games in the MWC….in every sport…
Joe Hatley Wyoming needs to make these 3 changes: 1. Put a Dome on the stadium, (It will make a world of difference for recruiting, future games and fan attendance in November!) 2. Reach out to the Big 12, far better conference and travel is realistic 3. Hire a new AD that can be accountable and has some influence.
Shea Foster You guys can make fun of CSU but they are about to have a better TV deal than Wyoming and the leftovers. The lack of winning in revenue sports is catching up to Burman now.
Celyn Rogers They’re about to get their butts kicked for years to come they can’t even compete in the MW currently in FB and BB which are the only sports that truly matter
Bryan Stevens This is far from over. The number of schools invited shines a light on the 2PAC wishing that the ACC will implode and Cal and Stanford will come back to them. In reality they’re going to end up inviting an additional 5 MW schools to get to the magic number of 9 schools required to dissolve the MW and avoid the hundreds of millions of dollars in buyout fees.
Trey Blough Been saying it since all the conference realignment started happening that if the Mountain West gets poached away and falls, Wyoming will be in the Big Sky
Kevin Bommer This has been a long time coming. Not surprised about Boise State OR SDSU, especially BSU since they’ve never been happy in the conference. CSU will do great at sucking in a new conference, but I hope there is a commitment to keep The Border War alive. There are some competitive football schools that could be invited into the MWC. Hopefully, there has already been some work done ahead of time in anticipation of this possibility.
Charlie Cordova It’s a lateral move that really doesn’t make sense. It’s not like they attract more money and prestige with the pac 12 name without all the pac 12 programs.
David Coleman Wyoming’s major problem isn’t the team or the university or facilities, it’s the small media market.
Jason Ferguson RIP Mountain West. I think it’s high time Wyoming consider moving down to FCS in football. Join the Big Sky or Missouri Valley Conference. The writing is on the wall. On a side note, the MWC throws the PAC-12 a lifeline and this is how they are repaid?
Chase Appleby Move to FCS? Tell me how that even makes sense after the past 8 years? Folks.. Mtn West Championship Game 2 Power 5 wins 6 bowl games 5 winning seasons Take a breath Wyoming will be fine.
Andrew Bercich So we don’t have to deal with Boise fans anymore and we get to keep UNLV… sold!
Joe Vincent So…. I got LIT UP last year for suggesting maybe wyoming was better suited for the FCS. Anyone still want to make an argument? We have no wins. No talent. And no conference after this year. We just got clowned by a mediocre FCS school. To think we are too good to “move down” might be delusional at this point… just throwing it out there for discussion.
Scott Addison money talks, MWC is going the way of the WAC, off into the sunset, Wyoming should beg the Big Sky and Missouri Valley Conference to accept them
Linda Siebert Beidleman I have bled Brown and Gold for over 60 years, and have watched the Pokes get left behind and leave others behind. We have always adjusted and been a leader and competed at a high level. Let things shake out!!! And stop with the idea of stepping down a level!!!
Randy Tucker A sad departure, especially CSU…no one beats the sheep like the Cowboys…The MWC is still a viable conference but won’t generate the big bucks that is driving all this insanity…in the end will USC and Washington generate enough $$ with football to offset the cost of travel for the non-revenue sports? USC has 35+ scholarship sports….ridiculous
Chris Krassin Beg lower level FCS Division conference to take us? Sorry but this is not something a proud school should ever do.
Nick Poncelow Big Sky looks like a pretty fun conference, also easier and cheaper travel for away games. We could actually compete with the top of the FCS, sometimes.
Matthew P Pacheco Not sure this is the death knell for the MWC and Wyo that people are making it out to be. Boise and SDSU have had one foot out the door for over a decade. Everyone knew it was going to happen at some point in the near future. That reality was probably one of the barriers to negotiating a new TV contract. Finding replacements for them has probably been planned long in advance. CSU isn’t really a loss for anyone other than Wyoming and maybe AF. The CO front range is not much of a college sports market, and the people who are into CFB are mostly transplants who follow their hometown schools. Fresno is probably the only real loss for the conference as a whole. They’ve been competitive for a long time and have slowly built some cred. But they aren’t a tent-pole program, and they aren’t in a major TV market. They weren’t going to bring in a ton of extra TV money for the whole conference. The remaining members of the MWC come away from this with $13M each. Likely more in their pockets than keeping Boise and SDSU over the next 5 years (which wasn’t going to happen anyway). UNLV has the potential to be a real powerhouse in the NIL era, and could be the tent-pole program for the MWC that Boise always thought they were. The MWC can add NMST and UTEP, or some of the regional FCS powers can move up to FBS. The TV deal isn’t going to be great, but it will probably be about the same deal they would have gotten (since everyone knew Boise and SDSU were gone soon regardless) It will be enough for all the schools to continue on at the same level of funding they have been.
Rex Wimmer I’m bummed but not surprised… Hoping the MWC picks up NMSU, UTEP, NDSU, and SDSU. From there further expansion is probably needed.
Paul Lang Remember Wyoming left 3 conferences before the MW. RMAC,MSC and WAC
University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
The rules are simple: What was the player’s impact while in Laramie? That means NFL stats, draft status or any other accolade earned outside of UW is irrelevant when it comes to this list.
This isn’t a one-man job. This task called for a panel of experts. Joining 7220’s Cody Tucker are Robert Gagliardi, Jared Newland, Ryan Thorburn, and Kevin McKinney.
We all compiled our own list of 50 and let computer averages do the work. Think BCS — only we hope this catalog is fairer.
Gallery Credit: 7220Sports.com
– University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
If the Wyoming House and Senate approve its budget changes, then the chambers’ Joint Conference Committee will have helped the University of Wyoming dodge a $40 million cut, while also limiting the Wyoming Business Council to one year’s funding instead of the standard two.
The Joint Conference Committee adopted numerous changes to the state’s two-year budget draft, but didn’t formally advance the document to the House and Senate chambers. The committee meets again Monday and may do so at that time.
Then, the House and Senate can vote on whether to adopt that draft by a simple majority.
First, UW
Starting in January, the Joint Appropriations Committee majority had sought to deny around $20 million in exception requests the University of Wyoming made, while imposing a $40 million cut to the university’s block grant.
That’s about 10% of the state’s grant to UW but a lesser proportion of the school’s overall operating budget.
The Senate sought to restore the $60 million.
The House sought to keep the denials and cuts, ultimately settling on a bargain to cut $20 million, and hinge UW’s retention of the remaining $20 million on its finding and reporting $5 million in savings.
The Joint Conference Committee the House and Senate sent into a Friday meeting to negotiate those two stances chose to fund UW “fully,” Senate Majority Floor Leader Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily in the state Capitol after the meeting.
But, $10 million of UW’s $40 million block grant won’t reach it until the school charts a “road map” of how it could save $5 million, and reports that to the Joint Appropriations Committee, she added.
“A healthy exercise, I think, for them to participate in, while the Legislature still allows them to receive full grant funding,” Nethercott said.
“I’m hopeful people feel confident the University is fully funded,” she continued, as it’s “on the brink of receiving a new president, having the resources he or she may need to continue to steer the leadership of the University, our state’s flagship school into the future.”
Hours earlier in a press conference, House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, said the Legislature has been clear that UW should avoid “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or DEI programming, and that it’s the position of the House majority that the school should tailor its programming to Wyoming’s true business needs – so UW graduates will stay in the state.
Within an earlier draft of the budget sat a footnote blocking money for Wyoming Public Media — a publicly funded media and radio entity funded through UW’s budget.
That footnote is gone from the JCC’s draft, said Nethercott.
Wyoming Business Council
The Wyoming Business Council is set to receive roughly $14 million, confined to one year, for its internal operations, said Nethercott.
“Both chambers have decided to only fund the operations,” Nethercott said, “not all the grant programs.”
She said that’s to compel the Legislature to revisit the concerns it has with the agency, then return in the 2027 legislative session with a vision for its future.
The Business Ready Communities program is “eliminated,” she said.
JCC member Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, elaborated further.
Of the appropriation, $12 million is from the state’s checking account, plus the state is authorizing WBC to use $157,787 in federal funds and nearly $1 million from other sources.
“We’re going to take it up as an interim topic in appropriations (committee) and how to rebuild it and make it work the way we think it should work,” said Pendergraft. But the JCC opted to fund the Small Business Development Center for two years, along with Economic Diversification Division for Manufacturing Works, and the Wyoming Women’s Business Center, Pendergraft noted, pointing to that language on his draft budget sheet.
Pendergraft made headlines last year by saying he wanted to eliminate the Wyoming Business Council altogether.
But Nethercott told the Senate earlier this month, legislators have complained of that agency her entire nine-year tenure.
She attributed this to what she called communications shortfalls that may not be intentional. She cosponsored a now-stalled bill this year that had sought to adopt a task force to evaluate WBC.
The Wyoming Business Council’s functions range from less controversial, like helping communities build infrastructure, to more controversial, like awarding tax-funded grants to certain businesses on a competitive application process.
Wyoming Public Television
Wyoming Public Television, which is not the same as Wyoming Public Media, is slated to receive the $3 million it lost when Congress defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Nethercott said.
It will also receive its usual $3 million from Wyoming.
The entity will not receive another $3 million it had sought to upgrade its emergency-alert towers, said Nethercott, “because we received information from them… they have another source to pay for the replacement and maintenance of the towers.”
Like the Wyoming Business Council, the Wyoming Public TV’s functions range from less controversial to more controversial.
The entity operates, maintains and staffs emergency alert towers throughout Wyoming.
Wyoming Public TV also produces entertainment and informational movies. Its state grants run through the community colleges’ budget.
State Employees
Nethercott noted that the JCC advanced to both chambers an agreement to pay $111 million from the state’s checking account to give state employees raises.
Those raises would bring them to 2024 market values for their work, she noted.
Because that money is coming from the state’s checking account, or “general fund,” and not its severance tax pool as the House had envisioned, then $111 million won’t impact the $105 million investment another still-viable bill seeking to build an “energy dominance fund” envisions.
That bill, sponsored by Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, seeks to lend to large energy-sector projects.
Biteman told Cowboy State Daily in an interview days before the session convened that its purpose is to counteract “green” compacts investors have adopted, and which have bottlenecked energy projects.
Wyoming’s executive branch is currently suing BlackRock and other investors on that same assertion.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
It’s Week 11 in the 2026 Wyoming prep girls’ basketball season. That means it’s the end of the regular season. 3A and 4A schools have their final game or games to determine seeding before the regional tournament, or if a team is locked into a position, one last chance to fine-tune before the postseason. Games are spread across four days.
WYOPREPS WEEK 11 GIRLS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE 2026
Every game on the slate is a conference matchup. Several rivalry contests are part of this week’s schedule, such as East against Central, Cody at Powell, Lyman hosting Mountain View, and Rock Springs at Green River, just to name a few. Here is the Week 11 schedule of varsity games WyoPreps has. All schedules are subject to change. If you see a game missing, please email david@wyopreps.com.
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Laramie 68 Cheyenne South 27 (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Final Score: Lyman 40 Mountain View 26 (conference game)
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Evanston 41 Riverton 39 (conference game)
Final Score: Natrona County 42 Kelly Walsh 38 (conference game) – Peach Basket Classic
Final Score: #4 Thunder Basin 64 Campbell County 32 (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Final Score: #1 Cody 77 Worland 33 (conference game) – 5 different Fillies with a 3, and Hays led the way with 34 points.
Final Score: #2 Lander 49 Lyman 34 (conference game)
Final Score: #4 Wheatland 51 Douglas 40 (conference game)
Final Score: #5 Powell 48 Lovell 42 (conference game)
Final Score: Burns 56 Torrington 43 (conference game)
Final Score: Glenrock 78 Newcastle 30 (conference game)
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Nominate A Basketball Player for the WyoPreps Athlete of the Week Honor
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 1-21-26
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WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 4 Scores 2025-26
WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Rankings 1-7-26
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WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Rankings 12-24-25
WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 2 Scores 2025-26
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WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 1 Scores 2025-26
CLASS 4A
Rock Springs at #2 Green River, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
#4 Thunder Basin at #5 Sheridan, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
#1 Cheyenne East at #3 Cheyenne Central, 6 p.m. (conference game)
Jackson at Star Valley, 6 p.m. (conference game)
CLASS 3A
#3 Pinedale at Mountain View, 4 p.m. (conference game)
#1 Cody at #5 Powell, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
Buffalo at Glenrock, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Newcastle at Buffalo, 12:30 p.m. (conference game)
Glenrock at Rawlins, 3 p.m. (conference game)
Torrington at #4 Wheatland, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
Wyoming Boys 4A Swimming & Diving State Championships 2026
4A Boys State Swim Meet for 2026 in Cheyenne
Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com
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