Boise State joins Mountain West Conference

NCAA Football Betting Lines

06/11/2010 - Colorado Springs, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Mountain West Conference announced Friday that Boise State has accepted an invitation to join the conference beginning July 1, 2011.

Boise State moves on from the Western Athletic Conference and becomes the 10th member of the MWC. It's the first addition to the league since TCU joined in 2005.

"We are pleased and excited to welcome Boise State University to the Mountain West Conference," said commissioner Craig Thompson. "Since our inception just 11 short years ago, the Mountain West has experienced tremendous success, and the addition of Boise State will further enhance that strength. The MWC continues to strategize regarding potential membership scenarios and bringing Boise State into the conference is an important part of that evolution."

On Monday, the Mountain West announced it had decided to put expansion plans on hold, citing uncertainty in the shifting landscape of college sports with changes already in the works for some of the elite conferences such as the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10.

Boise State joins current MWC members Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, TCU, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming.

"It will be a privilege to compete and partner with such a successful group of member institutions. This move is in the best interests of Boise State's future, and the university is excited to be part of one of the nation's most outstanding conferences," said Boise State president Bob Kustra.

It's the second conference shift in as many days following Colorado's move from the Big 12 to the Pac-10. Another Big 12 member, Nebraska, has decided to apply for membership in the Big Ten.

The spotlight on Friday's marriage of Boise State and the Mountain West will surely shine brightest on the gridiron with the two longtime thorns in the Bowl Championship Series' collective side. The Broncos have put together two undefeated seasons in the last four years under head coach Chris Petersen, garnering the label of "BCS Buster."

However, the WAC, like the MWC, does not hold an automatic bid under the current BCS system, making it nearly impossible to gain a shot at playing for a national championship. That's something the Mountain West has gone as far as the courts to try and change, albeit unsuccessfully, after similar on-field successes by Utah and TCU over the last few years.

There are 11 Division I conferences within football and under the current BCS format, only six of those -- the ACC, SEC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, and Pac-10 -- receive automatic bids to the lucrative BCS bowls.

Other potential conference realignments on the horizon, including a palpable complete dissolution of the Big 12, would bring about a shakeup in the system, and proponents of change will certainly point to the new-look Mountain West as a candidate for inclusion.

The Big 12 had given a deadline of Friday for both Nebraska and Missouri to make decisions on whether to remain in the conference. Meanwhile, the Pac-10 is rumored to be crafting a mega-expansion to 16 teams with invitations to a handful of Big 12 schools, including marquee members Texas and Oklahoma.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.

Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch

Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.

Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.

"Generally talking about the starting lineup is not something we do," Green told the AP. "However, given the speculation that was out there we want to make it clear. We're disappointed after last week, but we still expect to be a playoff football team and we fully expect Kurt Warner to be the quarterback that leads us. That has not changed."

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs.