In the world of today’s college sports scheduling, there’s only one voice that truly matters – the television networks. Because of that fact, fans of schools from conferences like the Mountain West have had to deal with absurd game times and players sometimes have little (or too much break) between action all to satisfy television partner’s demands.

While that’s been the way of the land for some time, things may soon be changing in our evolving sports marketplace.

With the Mountain West’s television contract coming to an end during the 2019-2020 academic calendar, according to Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the league’s brass is considering shifting away from cable entirely and going online.

Zeigler recently spoke with Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson regarding the league’s current issues with its broadcasting deal with CBS. The deal currently pays each of the league’s 12 teams around $1 million a year for the broadcast rights.

“We spent about seven hours with the presidents and ADs talking about our TV package,” Thompson said. “We’re playing at 8:15 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. consistently in football, we’ve even had some 9 p.m. o’clock tips in basketball, we had three Sunday afternoon (basketball) games in San Diego this year. What are we doing? What’s the return?

“They hear it from fans. They go to the games themselves. Presidents are saying, ‘Wait a minute. I have a 6 a.m. breakfast in the morning, and we have an 8:30 p.m. kick?’ The question becomes: Is it worth $1 million per school to have all these disenfranchised fans?”

While $12 million a year is nothing to complain about, the league’s rigid schedule has hurt attendance around the conference. According to Zeigler, Boise State, arguably the league’s most popular team, has suffered from a declining number of season ticket football sales each of the last four years — and the Broncos have a 39-14 overall record during that span.

The alternative for the Mountain West, and other conferences questioning the value of their contracts, is to take itself off of cable and to an online streaming service. This would allow fans around the world to have access to games wherever they are and would allow for the schools to schedule more reasonable start times.

While this news could be read as a ploy to get the television partners to increase broadcasting rights fees, considering the cable bubble has apparently burst, there may not be addition funds available to offer conferences such as the Mountain West.

Whether or not moving to a streaming option is viable, as well as fiscally feasible, will be something the Mountain West will have to decide in the coming months. If indeed it is, the local fans stand to gain the most from this radical idea.

Follow Michael Wayne Bratton / SEC Mike on Twitter.