Had a nice talk with BYU associate athletic director Brian Santiago last week and he is one of the few people employed by a Mountain West Conference school saying publicly he'd like to see Fresno State in the MWC.

Of the rumored MWC expansion, he said, "I just hope some day Fresno's a part of it. It's my alma mater and I would love to see them in the Mountain West Conference."

Though two of his brothers went to BYU and his father was a professor there, Santiago instead came to California and played basketball for Fresno State. He still makes trips to Fresno, has many great friends here, and played a big part in organizing this year's BYU-Fresno State basketball game, the first time the teams have played since BYU left the Western Athletic Conference for the MWC.

The game, to be played Dec. 12, was originally proposed by a promoter, and was going to be a neutral-site game in Los Angeles. When the promoter backed out at the last minute, the two schools decided to create a home-and-home series, starting this year at the Save Mart Center.

Santiago certainly wants to see the BYU-Fresno State rivalry pick up again.

"My senior year we played BYU four times," Santiago said. "It was certainly becoming a great rivalry. The football games when we were in the WAC were extremely good. Some epic games."

BYU is has also scheduled future basketball and football games against Boise State, but Santiago said fans shouldn't take that to mean Boise State and Fresno State

I'm just an associate AD that loves Fresno.

If they ever asked me, I'd tell them how I feel. But that's not my decision.