With Boise St in the MWC they have a decent shot at becoming an AQ BCS conference after the next BCS evaluation period, which occurs in two years. In order to be included as part of the MWC in time for the next evaluation, Boise St needs to compete in the MWC by 2011, and in order to meet that deadline they need to officially agree to become a member by July 1st, 2010. I think the MWC was hoping that this conference realignment would play out by then, but seeing how there is no end in sight right now, they went ahead and did what currently gives their conference the best chance of becoming a BCS AQ conference.