Gonzaga, which advanced to the national championship game a year ago and is a No. 4 seed in this year’s NCAA tournament, is in negotiations about joining the conference, possibly in time for the 2018-19 basketball season......
......There’s been a lot of speculation that other schools would join the MW with Gonzaga, as sort of a package deal. But multiple sources have said that’s not the case. If the presidents of the MW’s 11 full members vote to extend an invitation to Gonzaga, it will be a stand-alone offer.
If BYU, New Mexico State, Rice, UTEP, St. Mary’s, Grand Canyon or any other school want to join the MW, they will have to pursue those opportunities on their own rather than on the Zags’ coattails......
......Gonzaga doesn’t have a football team, so its addition wouldn’t affect the MW’s current setup in football of two six-team divisions, with the winners of each meeting in a championship game. It would simply give the conference the same number of schools in basketball that it currently has in football, balancing out the football-only membership of Hawaii, which is in the Big West Conference in other sports.