New year, same debate.

With the Mountain West Conference Basketball Championships looming, Monday's teleconference involving the league's coaches was dominated by the near-annual debate about the fairness of UNLV hosting the conference tournament.

The exact answers varied, but - especially with five new coaches on the scene - all pointed towards further discussion in the offseason about finding a better plan.

"Unfortunately, until things change, the automatic (NCAA Tournament) qualifier is the conference tournament winner," New Mexico coach Steve Alford said. "And that's why I think it's very, very important for our league to really look closely at what we're doing with our league tournament, because having it at a host school, there's not any kind of balance or anything fair to that for the other eight teams in the league."

Alford, in his first year at the helm for the Lobos, has been the most vocal about the situation and has made his comments public and very clear from Day One.

He coached in the Big Ten at Iowa for the last eight seasons, where the conference tournament alternates between Chicago and Indianapolis, Ind.

Those sites can give Illinois (when in Chicago) or Indiana and Purdue (when in Indianapolis) some advantage, but Alford said it's not nearly the same.

"There's a big difference," Alford said. "If the tournament was in Champaign … I would be hard-pressed to think Illinois would never have been outside of the championship game, and that's very similar to what's happened with UNLV. They're a very good basketball program and a very good basketball team and all of the sudden, when you get home games, that's a big difference.

"There's a huge difference in home games and neutral games, even if you're in the same city. … I'm just a big proponent, especially when the NCAA says the automatic qualifier comes from the league tournament. Well, with that being true, the league tournament needs to be at a neutral site so it's fair for everybody. … In my opinion, there's not a lot of fairness right now, for the other eight league schools, knowing that one of the league schools gets to play home games, the other eight have to play either neutral games, or - if you're playing UNLV - play a road game."

MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said he hadn't heard any grumbling this year about the site of the tournament, but reiterated that Las Vegas - though perhaps not the Thomas & Mack Center - is the perfect venue.

"We have, for three or four years now, done demographic research … and the figures are somewhere north of 70 percent (of fans) saying they're likely to attend the tournament in Vegas," Thompson said. "Conversely, we had much less of a figure … significantly more just the opposite that they would not attend the tournament in Denver.

"So you get the advantage of a neutral-court site (in Denver), and from a competitive perspective that's exactly what you want. But our fans, alumni (and) season-ticket holders have remarkably been resilient and loud in stating they want to attend the tournament in Las Vegas."

Some of the talk centered on keeping the tournament in Las Vegas, but moving it to a different arena.

However, such a venue does not currently exist.

"That is where the fans want to attend," Thompson said. "Now, possibly if Las Vegas city builds a new facility and tries to attract other events, maybe there's a new facility, but it's still going to be in Las Vegas. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

That bridge is still pretty far out.

The tournament is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas this year and for two more seasons, though the schools and coaches will likely continue to bring up the idea of a change.

"It comes down to a nine-institution vote," Thompson said. "And we are going to be in Las Vegas through 2010 and there are a couple option years on top of that. And again, we will host the tournament wherever the membership says we should play it."

Contact sports reporter Eric Schmoldt at (307) 266-0578 or eric.schmoldt@trib.com

THEY SAID IT

Steve Alford has been this year's vocal leader in championing a change away from playing the MWC Basketball Championships at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, but here's what some of the other coaches in the league had to say:

STEVE FISHER, SDSU: "(It's) a general topic that we can have behind closed doors before we start announcing what might be some thoughts on it."

DAVE ROSE, BYU: "Publicly, on the record, our coaches do a pretty good job of supporting decisions that are made. But I think individually, if you asked each coach, you'd probably get a different response, and that's probably where we out to keep it right now. … In my opinion, I would like to move more towards what we would call power conferences (and) how they do their tournaments if that would be at all possible."

LON KRUGER, UNLV: "I have no idea what the other coaches are going to do. Everyone recognizes that Las Vegas is a place people want to go to and watch games. I think, ideally, in the other coaches minds, or maybe the league's as well, if there was another facility here, where you could come to Vegas and not play in the Thomas & Mack, that'd be the ideal scenario. It may work out that way in the long run &ellipsis; but it's kind of a moot point (because) the tournament's going to be here for three or four years and then we'll decide where it's going to go after that."

JIM BOYLEN, UTAH: "It's not an issue with me. I think it's what's best for the league to have it in Vegas right now. I think that's where the league is at and I'm not going to make a big deal about it. … I'm not going to be negative about it. Is it the ideal situation for everybody? Maybe not. Is it the ideal situation for the league, where we're at right now? I think it is."

HEATH SCHROYER, WYOMING: "I think that it's a definite advantage for the home team to play on their home floor. I understand where the league is coming from, from revenue purposes, but as a basketball guys and one of the nine guys that's in the true battle every day, I'm sure Steve (Alford) would love to play the Mountain West Tournament at The Pit. And what kind of advantage would that be and what kind of advantage would Tim Miles have if it's played at CSU. Obviously it's a huge advantage, I just don't know how to fix it."

TIM MILES, COLORADO STATE: "As long as you've got an assigned site of a home team … and you don't have to win the conference to host it, everybody is going to say 'Why aren't we rewarding our regular-season champion?' … Obviously, our folks feel like that's the best site. Do I like it or not? Well, I haven't had a chance to exercise a vote on that yet, and when I do, I'll exercise it appropriately."