Mountain West announces media-rights deal for new-look league

The Mountain West may look a whole lot different next year, but how we'll look at the league isn't changing all that much.

The Mountain West on Tuesday announced its new multi-year media-rights deal for the new-look league, which is being gutted by the departures of five schools after this season.

While financial terms weren't disclosed, and the overall number of games is less than the current contracts offer (so are the number of teams in the league, of course), the league's primary broadcast partners CBS Sports and Fox Sports have reupped with the league and the CW Network has jumped on board. The league also announced a subscription-based app for coverage of hundreds of events around the Mountain West each year.

The new app emphasis will be spearheaded by direct-to-consumer streaming company Kiswe.

"The partnerships with CBS Sports, FOX Sports, The CW Network, and Kiswe represent the broadest media distribution plan in the conference’s history, delivering unprecedented national linear visibility coupled with a creative and comprehensive digital presence," said Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez in a statement released by the conference offices on Tuesday.

The Grant of Rights deal continuing for legacy Mountain West members, such as the University of New Mexico, signed after the defections of the departing five, included a clause stipulating that anything short of the $3.5 million per year the schools received in the current media rights deal — expiring in June — will be made whole by the league.

CBS remains the primary television partner of the Mountain West, as has been the case for the past two media rights deals, even as it is being broken apart by the departures of Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State to join up with Washington State and Oregon State to start a new league carrying the Pac-12 name and logo (CBS is also a partner of the new Pac-12).

"The Mountain West has been a valued partner for more than two decades, and we're proud that CBS Sports will continue to showcase the conference's marquee games across our platforms, including the MW Basketball Championships," said Dan Weinberg, CBS Sports executive vice president of programming. "This new agreement further elevates our multiplatform college football portfolio and adds even more depth to our robust college basketball lineup."

CBS will again air the MW basketball championship games with CBS Sports Network airing the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.

Fox Sports will keep the MW Football championship game.

For football, CBS Sports Network will broadcast 15 games and at least one on CBS; Fox networks (to include FS1 and FS2) has at least 12 football games a season and the title game; and the CW will have 13 games.

For men's basketball, CBS networks game 18 regular season games and the tournament (the women's tournament title game will again be broadcast on CBS Sports Network); Fox will air 20 basketball games; and the CW gets 20.

The streaming app with Kiswe will cover many games not picked up by television partners and, like seen now on TheMW.com, many other Mountain West sports will also be available on the app, which starting in the fall will require a monthly or annual subscription.

The new-look Mountain West will be comprised of holdovers Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV and Wyoming with new additions including Hawaii (all sports), UTEP (all sports) Grand Canyon (non-football), UC Davis (non-football) and Northern Illinois (football only).

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.