The Mountain West announced new television deals with FOX and CBS Sports Network earlier this month. Since joining the conference in 2011, Boise State has been allowed to negotiate its own television contract for its football games. Conference commissioner Curt Thompson said that this may be the last time the Mountain West allows Boise State to negotiate on its own.
According to KTVB-TV, that did not sit well with Boise State AD Curt Aspey. While he initially had no comment on what Thompson had to say, Aspey and the Boise State athletics department issued a statement on Friday evening saying that it was weighing its options moving forward.
“The Mountain West stated that this was the last time our deal would be negotiated separately,” the statements reads. “However, Boise State’s decision to join the conference was predicated on a number of negotiated provisions, including the right to separately negotiate material terms of media rights relating to our home games. This is stated in our conference agreement and cannot be changed by any vote of the membership or conflicting agreement. We will not support any change to this provision and are in the process of weighing our options to move forward.”
It isn’t clear what “weighing our options means.” Boise State could be threatening litigation. It could also look at leaving the Mountain West entirely.
Under the terms of the new TV deal, all Boise State home football games will air on FOX. CBS will have the rights to the school’s road games.
