ESPN Independents and Others Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

I've been trying to post the questions from the mailbag every week so that I don't get a backlog. This week was slim, but here's a mini mailbag...

Sean from Cave Creek, Ariz., writes: Hey, since there will be three new offenses in the MWC and it seems everyone will be spread, will the MWC be more exciting and competitive than last fall?

Graham Watson: I thought the Mountain West was pretty exciting and competitive last year, actually. I think what you'll see (and you might not see it right away, maybe in 2010) is that there is going to be more parity in the conference. For the past few years, it's always been about the Big 3 -- TCU, Utah and BYU. With some of the new high-level coaches in place and a couple other teams coming along, I think that those three teams will face a little more competition from the rest of the league. I am interested to see what the New Mexico and Wyoming offenses will look like this year and whether San Diego State found its running game.

Joel from TCU writes: What are the chances Notre Dame ever joins the Big 10? Call me crazy, but if they are ever going to join a conference in football, they seem the most likely candidate as they play 3 teams (Mich, Mich St, Purdue) from the conf. every year, and because of previous conversation in the past.

Graham Watson: Notre Dame is more or less linked with Big East. In almost every sport other than football, Notre Dame plays a heavy smattering of Big East teams, so if it were to join a conference, that's probably the direction it would head. But Notre Dame doesn't really need to join a conference in football. It has all the perks of the BCS without the hassles of winning a conference championship. It makes about $1.3 million per year just for being apart of the BCS. It makes about $4.5 million if it plays in a BCS bowl. It only has to be in the top eight of the BCS standings for BCS bowl qualification. Those guarantees would be gone if they joined a conference and those payouts would likely be smaller.

Joe writes: Graham, what do you think East Carolinas chances are of repeating their early success of last year, and finishing strong? Is a BCS bid a possibility?

Graham Watson: I like East Carolina's chances of being better than it was a year ago simply because the Pirates learned from the success last year. However, I think the schedule is tough once again and I think teams such as Virginia Tech are going to take this year's game personally. I do like the Pirates chances of repeating as the C-USA East and possible C-USA overall champion, but watch out for Southern Miss.

Alan writes: What do you think about putting the best football teams from the MWC and Western Athletic into a conference and giving those teams an automatic BCS bid?

Graham Watson: If we're speaking in hypotheticals, it could be interesting. But there are some basic questions to consider... What teams would you put in and how many teams would be in the conference? What would happen to all the other teams left out? Would these teams be compatible in all sports, not just football? Would they be compatible academically? I mean really, if we're talking about making a "Super Conference" there are really just four, maybe five teams that would be good enough -- right now -- to compete on a BCS level consistently. Sure, you could throw like Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Air Force and, I don't know, Louisiana Tech in there as well, but I still don't think it would be a comparable conference to the rest of the BCS conferences.