The Mountain West will have a new leader as its peak for the foreseeable future, and Gloria Nevarez is already out checking on the schools throughout the conference.
Saturday's plans included catching the Border War showdown between Colorado State and Wyoming in Laramie. From there, she made the multiple-hour trek to Colorado Springs to catch the nightcap of Air Force and San Diego State.
The announcement that Nevarez would lead the Mountain West came on Nov. 11, and she took over duties atop the conference at the start of the new year. She came in from the West Coast Conference where she served in the same role — also spending time in the PAC-12, and at multiple universities including Oklahoma and California-Berkeley.
Standing in the halls under the seats of Clune Arena, I was able to do a quick back-and-forth with the newly appointed commissioner about hot topics in the Mountain West.
What are the big changes you may have planned for the Mountain West?
I have not looked at it a ton, but my real focus has been on the national level so far — potential membership impacts, the NCAA Transformation Committee, NIL and then the transfer portal.
As far as the Mountain West specifically, I'm still learning.
Are the late-night kickoffs and tip-offs going to continue? Sort of in the PAC-12 model?
That's our value to our media partners. It's all about those late windows. I think we'll always have some of that, but it's about striking that balance with the hometown fan experience.
We'll likely start talking to partners in the next year for our new deal in two years.
What are some of the unique challenges of overseeing a conference with a military school like Air Force in it?
I don't know yet, but Jennifer Heppel, the commissioner of the Patriot League (home to Army and Navy) called me and told me all about the academies and gave me the 101 about all of the protocols on-site and everything.
I'm really excited because they're very dialed in here.
Is there any thought to moving the Mountain West headquarters out of Colorado Springs?
It's not one of my top four or five priorities, but our office lease is up in two years, so we'll probably take a look at it.
I think with COVID-19, we're a lot more comfortable in the remote world. But, 90% of what we do at the conference offices is serving our campuses, so we have to be out there. Whether we can do that from a different location (than Colorado Springs), I'm not sure.
As I said, it's not a top-five priority for me, yet.
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