Mtn. West gets 7 commitments, targets Texas St.
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Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff Writer
The Mountain West, after receiving signed commitments Thursday from its seven remaining member schools to stay in the conference, is already looking at adding more.
Texas State, which would be an all-sports addition, has emerged as a target for Mountain West expansion, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Thursday night. Another target that could soon come into focus for the conference is Northern Illinois, which would be as a football-only member.
Earlier Thursday, the conference announced Air Force, UNLV, New Mexico, Nevada, San José State, Wyoming and Hawai’i had signed a memorandum of understanding to stay in the league, with all of them agreeing to execute grant of media rights from 2026 to 2032.
“Our immediate priority was solidifying the membership of the Mountain West. Now our focus turns to our collective future on behalf of our student-athletes,” MWC commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement. “The agreements announced today mark a historic moment for the Mountain West and provide much-needed stability and clarity as the world of intercollegiate athletics continues to evolve rapidly. We are excited about our future and are executing our next steps in expanding the Mountain West.”
It also announced plans for how it will distribute money it received in exit fees from the five schools leaving for the Pac-12. Those schools — Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Utah State and San Diego State — are on the hook for roughly $18 million each, per the conference bylaws, but negotiations could lead to decreased totals.
Once it is determined what the total pot is, the distribution breakdown will be 24.5% for Air Force and UNLV, 11.5% for New Mexico, Nevada, San José State and Wyoming, and 5% for Hawai’i.
In its own statement, UNLV said it expects a lump-sum payment from the Mountain West of between $10 million and $14 million in 2025, with additional payments between $1.5 million and $1.8 million over a six-year period starting in July 2026.
UNLV was the lynchpin for this to come together. The school signed a memorandum of understanding to remain in the Mountain West on Monday, but it was nullified when Utah State departed for the Pac-12 the same day. After re-engaging with both the Pac-12 and Mountain West, UNLV again decided to remain, thanks largely to the financial package it described.
“The league is a genuine brand and an established product,” UNLV athletic director Erick Harper said. “Increased revenues are a vital factor. As we look ahead and continue our ascent as an athletics department, this also gives us necessary flexibility as we pursue our future goal of joining an autonomous [Power Four] conference.”
With six full-time members and one partial member in Hawai’i, the Mountain West still needs to add two full-time football-playing schools to meet the NCAA minimum requirement but would have until the start of the 2028 to do so.
The Pac-12 stands at seven members and will need an additional school by the 2026 season.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are rolling. The Carolina Hurricanes are reeling.
Sam Bennett scored one of his two goals in Florida’s three-goal first period, Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves, and the Panthers beat the Hurricanes 5-0 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
Gustav Forsling and Matthew Tkachuk also scored in another tone-setting opening 20 minutes for the Panthers, while Carter Verhaeghe had three assists in the win.
“It might have been natural for us to take a little bit to get going tonight, and it was the exact opposite,” said Tkachuk, whose putaway off the feed from Verhaeghe at the crease marked his first goal since Game 3 of the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning. “It was an unreal start from us. The goals aside, just the way we played in the first period was as good as it gets. Yeah, that’s just a hell of a road trip.”
Florida had already ripped home-ice advantage away Tuesday night with a 5-2 win, the opener in a rematch of the 2023 conference finals swept by the Panthers with four one-goal wins. Florida tightened its grip on the series with this one and now heads back south to host Game 3 on Saturday night.
Bennett scored a second time by skating in to clean up an attempt at the right post in the final minute of the second period to make it 4-0, ending a long shift in Carolina’s end prolonged by Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns being stuck on the ice after breaking his stick. Aleksander Barkov added a goal midway through the third as punctuation.
Bobrovsky had his third shutout of the playoffs this year and the sixth of his career, with Florida’s defense smothering a Carolina team that typically peppers the net with shots but found little daylight.
Florida has won four straight road games by a combined score of 22-4, this time sending Hurricanes fans fleeing for the exits early.
“It’s fun when you’re on the road and it goes quiet,” Verhaeghe said. “It feels like we’re doing our job.”
It wasn’t all great news for Florida. Veteran forward Sam Reinhart was knocked from the game in the first period after taking a hit from Sebastian Aho in the left leg, causing Reinhart’s knee to bend awkwardly.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said after the game that Reinhart would be evaluated Friday and that there would be no update on Reinhart’s status until Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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