Honestly I would be a huge fan of this and I think the state of FCS football as things continue to change is only going to get worse. Even Montana state I feel at this point would probably want to make the move if the Mountain West came calling. What I'm seeing:
-San Diego State is finishing up their on campus stadium and investing heavily on their facilities. The Pac12 will never take them so getting to the Big12 is their best bet.
-Boise State is apparently now doing the same, this combined with news on the MWC board that both Boise and OSUs presidents were meeting seems to me there is probably some interest in the Big12 to add them.
-AF and CSU were approached by the AAC to join as both have desires to play more games in Texas, also at least in CSUs case potential expansion candidates for the Big12.
With all of this I feel the most likely scenario would be to see Boise and San Diego State moving to the Big 12 (Name recognition and exposure on West Coast) opening the door for both us and the Cats. Conference would look like:
MOUNTAIN DIVISION:
Montana, MSU, WYO, CSU, USU, New Mexico
(STATES: MT, WY, CO, UT, NM)
WEST DIVISION:
FSU, SJSU, UNR, UNLV, Hawaii, AF
(STATES: CA, NV, CO, HI)
Could swap AF with UNM but figured AF would want the West Coast exposure. Also if worried about AF and CSU leaving for the AAC eventually could then add either UTEP and NMSU or NDSU and SDSU (or both) but I personally would want the Dakota State schools, could end up looking like:
MOUNTAIN DIVISION:
Montana, MSU, WYO, USU, NDSU/NMSU, SDSU/UTEP
(STATES: MT, WY, UT, ND/NM, SD/TX)
WEST DIVISION:
FSU, SJSU, Hawaii, UNM, UNR, UNLV
(STATES: CA, HI, NV, NM)
If UTEP and NMSU joined would be an easy Divisional swap with USU. Regardless alot more upside in the MWC and would love to see teams like Wyoming, Nevada and CSU in WA Griz.