Former Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson received $2.44 million in compensation for the fiscal year 2023, marking the end of his nearly quarter-century leading the league.
Thompson’s remuneration included a $1.3 million severance, according to the MWC’s most recently filed tax return, which was obtained by Sportico.
Thompson was the MWC’s founding commissioner and served in that role for 24 years before retiring at the end of 2022. He was replaced by Gloria Nevarez, who previously served as commissioner of the West Coast Conference.
Over the course of Thompson’s tenure, the league experienced a number of highs and lows—often revolving around the same handful of programs. In 2010, Boise State joined the conference shortly before Utah announced that it would be departing for the Pac-12. A year later, Boise State and San Diego State, a founding MWC member, accepted invitations to join the Big East, as part of that conference’s 2013 expansion plans.
While that ultimately did not come to pass, Boise State and San Diego State would, over the ensuing decade, repeatedly entertain the idea of going elsewhere. That included SDSU’s most recent, failed attempt to join the Pac-12 last year.
Through it all, Thompson kept his conference’s core group of schools together, something comparable (or even superior) leagues, such as the Big East and CUSA, failed to achieve over that tenure.
The MWC reported $78.2 million in revenue in FY23—a slight dip from the previous fiscal year—while netting $7.3 million. The league paid most of its members around $5 million for 2022-23, with Boise State receiving the highest distribution of around $7.9 million.
