Some BYU/Mountain West stuff first. You might have seen commissioner Craig Thompson’s interview. Here’s a story explaining BYU’s side. And a strong column by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Gil Lebreton, pretty much ripping BYU’s decision. The Deseret News talks to BYU basketball coach Dave Rose, who I think got a raw deal in all this. And here’s a rundown of everything from the Salt Lake Tribune.

Onto Air Force – Ben Cochran’s role as a holder is important. From the season preview section, more special teams – a look at the Falcons’ mad dash field goal at the end of the first half of last year’s bowl game.

Northwestern State news: Coach Bradley Dale Peveto reminds folks that the Demons have pulled off some upsets before.

Around the Mountain West/service academies: A lot of NFL talent will be on the field tonight when Utah plays Pitt. Scouts will be there to watch. … I’d hope Bronco Mendenhall thinks a two-QB system will work considering he, you know, decided that’s what his team would do. … Not many in Oregon expecting the Ducks to lose to New Mexico. … UNLV is a work in progress, and the Rebels face a tough schedule. … Of course they do. … Colorado State QB Pete Thomas is in a bright spotlight this week. Will be interesting to watch him. … Already, MWC teams are saying they won’t play BYU after this season. No word from Air Force – Hans Mueh has not been made available for comment. … Army has lost its best linebacker for a while. … Navy outside linebacker Jarred Shannon had a “miraculous recovery” from shoulder surgery.

Saying he wasn’t upset, but “it’s frustrating,” Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson pondered what the conference’s next move will be without BYU.

He said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon, hours after BYU’s press conference to announce it was leaving the Mountain West to go independent in football and to the West Coast Conference in all other sports, that television exposure issues, which included an eight-year contract with ESPN to televise football home games, ultimately led to BYU’s departure.

“In their minds it was a much better deal,” Thompson said. “We wish them the best.”

The next move will almost certainly involve Conference USA. Thompson said merging the conferences was less likely than having a joint football championship game. That would hopefully lead to an automatic qualifier spot in the Bowl Championship Series. He said that there has only been a three-hour meeting between him and C-USA officials, but some agreement will be discussed further.

“We’re way far away from something, but the meetings will continue,” Thompson said.

Thompson lamented the loss of “rivalries, allegiances and camaraderie” in conferences. He said he longed for the days of the Southwest Conference, saying those conference rivalries were “a way of life.” Over this year the Mountain West has been in the middle of the conference shakeups – losing Utah to the Pac-10, then adding Boise State, before the second round when it added Nevada and Fresno State from the WAC, only to ultimately lose BYU.

“What we found out are the conferences are just athletic consortiums,” Thompson said. “They’re there for scheduling convenience, media marketing and to put officials on the field, and that’s it. Everyone has their own interests, and they have to.”

Thompson will do what he can to keep the 10-team Mountain West intact. Although Thompson had talked proudly about the lack of an exit fee in the conference, he said that will be changing.

“I think we’ll change that policy,” Thompson said. “That will be one of the first orders of business. That’s not a good business model.”

Thompson said he hadn’t thought about adding one or two teams to the Mountain West in the near future, saying he still doesn’t know for sure when Nevada and Fresno State are officially joining the conference.

The biggest problem with BYU was the television contract, and Thompson acknowledged the conference will work on distribution issues. He said he doesn’t think the conference’s plan, using its own network The mtn. to broadcast games was flawed, because many conferences don’t get the exposure that the Mountain West does.

“If you ask around, a lot of people look at this and say it’s good for us,” Thompson said.

He did acknowledge he wants the network to be in more households.

“Distribution is huge,” Thompson said. “Unfortunately people thought this was going to be an ESPN equivalent.”

BYU’s departure will likely hurt the conference’s hopes to be an automatic qualifier into the BCS, but Thompson tried to stay positive. He said the Mountain West will get Boise State’s strong rating numbers, and Fresno State and Nevada can be strong teams in the ratings as well. He said the conference’s “goals remain the same” when it comes to getting an automatic spot at the BCS, but replacing Utah and BYU will be a major blow.

“Obviously we went back, we had three top 25 teams, and now we have two,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he isn’t concerned about the future of the conference without BYU.

“I don’t worry about it,” Thompson said. “We still have a lot of positive things.”

Air Force had been waiting for BYU’s press conference and official announcement it had left the Mountain West Conference before making a statement, and I just got an e-mail with some comments from Lt. Gen. Mike Gould, superintendent of the Air Force Academy and chair of the MWC board of directors.

“The Air Force Academy has enjoyed many years of tough competition with BYU, and we cherish the memories of spirited rivalries we’ve developed over the years,” Gould said in the statement.  “While saddened to see them leave the Mountain West Conference, the Air Force Academy wishes Brigham Young University continued success both on and off the field in the future.  In the meantime, I remain optimistic about the future of the Mountain West Conference.  The recent addition of Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada as MWC members postures the Mountain West for continued success as a top-tier athletic conference.”

Suddenly, Air Force’s linebackers are a bit of a question mark. Wale Lawal was the latest to go down. He has a sprained MCL that will keep him out 8-12 weeks, Troy Calhoun said.

The Falcons got through August without too many injuries – especially since cornerbacks Anthony Wright and Josh Hall seem to be recovering well, and practiced yesterday – but linebacker has been one problem area. Ken Lamendola might be Air Force’s best linebacker, but he hasn’t practiced yet because of a knee injury and is likely weeks away from returning. Patrick Hennessey has a shoulder injury that doesn’t seem to have fully healed. Alex Means is listed as the starter at outside linebacker ahead of Hennessey.

And now Lawal will miss at least most of the regular season. That’s a tough blow for Lawal, who was with the second-team defense for most of camp and was replaced on the two-deep by freshman Jamil Cooks, and a blow for the Falcons as well.

BYU made its announcement that is has left the Mountain West Conference (there should be some Air Force and MWC comments coming later today). After watching the press conference live on KSL.com, the site for the NBC affiliate that covers BYU, an already well-known point was driven home: ESPN is the major player in college sports.

ESPN and BYU now have an eight-year deal in which the cable giant will broadcast the Cougars’ home football games. BYU might have to play on some non-Saturdays, and they might slip to ESPN’s lesser networks if it doesn’t play well, but this was obviously a lucrative offer for the school. BYU now has a series of games against Texas and Notre Dame set up, thanks in part to ESPN, who BYU athletics director Tom Holmoe called the “top matchmaker in college sports.”

ESPN vice president of programming Dave Brown was at the press conference and Holmoe said when the WAC fell apart, it was Brown who helped steer the school toward an alliance with the West Coast Conference for all of its non-football sports. When Holmoe was asked about bowl affiliation, he replied that ESPN owns and broadcasts many bowls, and there have been discussions between the two sides already.

The two sides congratulated each other throughout the 45-minute news conference. It does make one wonder for the Mountain West, whose TV partners are Comcast and CBS College Sports, how much it hurts not to have a relationship with a media entity with this much sway in the college sports landscape.

The news of the day: BYU is gone. Not unexpected, BYU wanted to be independent in football and if that means a step down to the West Coast Conference in everything else, so be it. I never questioned the desire for football independence – though I don’t know how much they benefit, other than financially – but did not think it was wise to devalue your other programs in the process. Here’s a list of the guys who have a lot more inside information about BYU than I do:

The Salt Lake Tribune’s main story, and some analysis.

Dick Harmon talks about the television issues with the MWC. And a story from the Deseret News.

And a story from the Provo Daily Herald.

Also, our own David Ramsey chimes in on independence in football.

Moving on to Air Force … how will the Falcons keep all these skill position guys happy? Over the last month one thing that has stood out to me is how deep Air Force is at the skill positions, there are a lot of guys bringing a lot to the table.

One thing that didn’t make the online version of the notes: Backup outside linebacker Wale Lawal will miss eight-to-12 weeks with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his knee. Tough blow for him.

Bonus note with no link: Rumor has it the basketball schedule might be out, in full, sometime this week. When it comes out, I’ll post it here ASAP.

Around the Mountain West/service academies: Good story from Eric Schmoldt of the Casper Star-Tribune examining the decisions schools make on their season opener. … New Mexico doesn’t have much experience at center or quarterback. … SDSU has a challenge of preparing for a brand new scheme at Nicholls State, which is hard when there’s no film on it. … Austyn Carta-Samuels of Wyoming will have a tough time outdoing what he did as a freshman quarterback last year. … Pitt vs. Utah should be a heck of a game to start the season. … They’re telling me secondary is one of TCU’s strengths. Is this a NFL team? … New uniforms for Army. … Sports Illustrated thinks Navy could have a special season.

Troy Calhoun is a polite man, and while he didn’t raise his voice very high when it was suggested in his press conference today that Air Force had “way more talent” than Northwestern State, he shot back right away.

“Wait a minute, can you say that again?” Calhoun said, not waiting for the statement to be repeated before his diatribe began. “How many draft picks have they had in the history of their school? 32. And Air Force has had five. They’ve had 13 guys that have been chosen in the first four rounds of the NFL draft. How many has the Air Force Academy had?”

The answer, of course, is none. Calhoun went on.

“We’ve got plenty of work to do, and our guys understands that too,” Calhoun said. “You’re playing against an extremely capable opponent.”

Calhoun talked about Northwestern State’s transfers – a few that came from from Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and LSU.

“”We don’t have anybody in our program who was offered or signed by a Big 12 school,” Calhoun said.

None of that should matter. Northwestern State was 0-11 in the lower-division FCS last year, and lost to Nicholls State. Air Force beat Nicholls State 72-0 last season.

Calhoun is mindful of Air Force’s typical role as an underdog, at least when it comes to recruiting top athletes out of high school, so he had to balance out the kind words for Northwestern State with some for the Falcons too.

“I’ve also learned in due time, that even though other places have guys might have had more stars behind their name in high school, what you end up coming to find out is we have good players too,” Calhoun said.

Quarterback Tim Jefferson played hurt almost all of last season. He tore the meniscus in his right knee less than two quarters into the season. That, and an ankle injury suffered in Week 3 bothered him all year. The injuries are part of the reason Jefferson’s averaged just 2.9 yards per rushing attempt.

This year, Jefferson feels 100 percent after training camp.

“It’s nice being able to not worry about being hurt, and playing through pain,” Jefferson said. “When you’re 100 percent, you can do more things on the field.”

Jefferson said the injuries affected how he played all last season because he always had it in the back of his mind.

“I was mindful of every move I was making,” Jefferson said. “I wasn’t running the same way. That affected our offense a bit. It hurt our whole team offensively that I wasn’t playing to my full potential.”

We finally have a game to talk about, and today’s main story is that Troy Calhoun won’t dial anything down for Northwestern State. While I don’t think they’re gonna use whatever super-secret trick play they have up their sleeve before BYU, this staff has been very serious about this game all month. The coaches probably don’t want to give off any indication this is an easy game (though, Northwestern State did go 0-11 in the FCS last year, so it should be an easy game). Basically, no team wants to be the one that’s in that “They lost to who???” sentence in the first week of the season.

If you read the blog you knew about Jamil Cooks, but read further and there’s some interesting offensive line news in the notes.

Around the Mountain West/service academies: BYU might not be going to the WAC. … Big news out of UNLV, where Mike Clausen won the starting quarterback job. … BYU’s two quarterback plan is going to be heavily second guessed if the Cougars lose in September. Here’s a couple of stories from the Deseret News on the topic. … Stefan, you’re killing me. TCU. Good. Everywhere. … Colorado State is figuring on a lot of passes from the Buffs. … A look at Wyoming’s first game, against Southern Utah. … Gonna be fun to watch these guys match up against Air Force’s corners. … How can an offensive tackle expected to handle big-game pressure when Utah doesn’t even trust him to speak to the media? Don’t get that. … USA Today puts New Mexico’s Mike Locksley on the hot seat. … Army’s depth chart for the first week. … Navy wants to go to the next level.