The Mountain West Conference has not added blue turf to its landscape.

At least not yet.

At the conclusion of the league’s board of directors meetings in Jackson, Wyo., on Monday, MWC commissioner Craig Thompson announced the league had decided, for now, to stand pat and not expand to include Boise State — whose football team plays on the famous synthetic blue “Smurf Turf” — or any other schools.

But he added that “the topic of expansion still is very much alive.”

“After an in-depth review of our membership, we think that due to the uncertainty in the intercollegiate landscape and the potential for significant shifts potentially in the immediate future, the board did not make a decision to expand at the present time,” Thompson said.

“The Mountain West will continue to monitor developments and conduct its due diligence. We’re very thorough in all our discussions and prepared for potential scenarios.”

Air Force superintendant Lt. Gen. Michael C. Gould, the academy’s representative at the meetings, declined comment through an academy spokesman and deferred to Thompson.

Many presumed the MWC would make a formal invitation to Boise State (currently of the Western Athletic Conference) on Monday. Several Boise media outlets were in Jackson for such an announcement. And WAC commissioner Karl Benson said Monday night that “everyone was anticipating and expecting it.”

“I think all the signals that were out there were pointing in the direction that an invitation would come today,” Benson said. “The Pac-10-Big 12, quote, merger, I think once I saw that it didn’t surprise me that the Mountain West then took this pause. This is an unbelievable volatile period, and the poker playing that is going on I think is unprecedented.”

Adding Boise State would give the MWC a Top 10 football team — one that compiled the best winning percentage in all of major college football from 2000 through 2009 (112-17, .868) — and immediately increase the football clout of a league trying to achieve automatic-qualifying status in the BCS.

But a vote about whether to invite Boise State — seven schools would have had to vote in favor of it — never took place. And the MWC appears ready to wait and see what happens with other conferences, like the Big Ten, Pac-10 and Big 12, before making a move.Thompson said the board discussed many schools, in addition to Boise State, and the possibility of adding more than one school if it did expand.

“We’ve all read and heard about the possibility of 16-member mega-conferences,” he said. “And that was part of the discussion — Should we only look at 10? Should we look at 12? Should we look at 16?”

Thompson stressed that expansion could be discussed again, possibly on short notice, depending on what happens during the next several weeks.

“Basically (the school presidents are) all on point that the next time I call them it’s an important call and please be a part of the conversation,” Thompson said. “There is no finite timeline, but it absolutely could be that where two weeks from now, a week from now, a month from now, never. But it will be and can be revisited appropriately.”

There is a closing window for adding Boise State for the 2011 season. Boise State would have to inform the WAC of its decision to leave by July 1 to leave without penalty.

Benson doesn’t believe today’s developments will guarantee the Broncos will stay in the WAC.

“I think it’s been pretty well documented that if an invitation comes, they will accept,” Benson said. “There’ve been a couple new twists thrown in here the last couple days that have caused the Mountain West to pause. And at some juncture they’re going to have to re-convene and decide which direction they want to take.”

NATO soldiers blocked parts of a road to secure an area adjacent to a police training center after at least three suicide bombers attacked in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Monday. Photo by The Associated Press

Allauddin Khan