The University of Idaho wants to remain a Football Bowl Subdivision school if at all possible, but would consider the feasibility of dropping to the Football Championship Subdivision level, Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said Friday afternoon in a media teleconference.

Idaho was recently considered for membership in the Mountain West Conference, but was not invited, Spear said, because Idaho's TV market was too small.

"We are disappointed that we were not considered for membership in the Mountain West Conference," Spear said. "We put together a strong case for the University of Idaho ... despite this disappointment, we are not going to be bitter. We are going to face this adversity head-on, and pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and move forward."

With the mass defections from the Western Athletic Conference this week - Utah State and San Jose State are jumping to the Mountain West, Louisiana Tech, North Texas and Texas-San Antonio are leaving for Conference USA - Idaho and New Mexico State would be the only football-playing members remaining in the league in 2013.

Spear said Idaho is considering at least four scenarios for its athletic plans moving forward, presumably in order of priority - 1) keeping all of its sports in one FBS conference; 2) putting football in one FBS conference and keeping the remainder of its sports in the WAC as a non-football conference; 3) going independent in football and having the rest of its sports in a conference; and 4) reviewing the feasibility of returning to the FCS division.

Spear said there is no timetable for getting this all sorted out, but obviously sooner would be better than later.

"The University of Idaho is resilient," Spear said. "We will continue to be resilient, and we're going to land on our feet. Whatever the final outcome is, the University of Idaho is going to be fine."

He also said that conference reshuffling is far from over. With the possibility of a new BCS format coming in a couple of years, and the likely elimination of the automatic qualifier status, Spear said it's possible the top five conferences will pull away from the other FBS schools into one tier, with the rest of the FBS schools in a second tier.

"I think there's interest across the country that if there is overall restructuring, and those big five conferences go away, there are a lot of schools want to position themselves for that second tier, including the University or Idaho," Spear said.

Spear said he wishes the Vandals would have been able to meet face-to-face with the membership committee of the Mountain West. Instead, they were asked to send a presentation to the conference, and follow it up with phone calls to school presidents.

If Idaho wishes to be considered by the Mountain West in the future, Spear said the Vandals will focus on "putting a quality product on the field and court," noting that Idaho currently is in first place in the WAC Commissioners Cup, which is based on results from all of a school's teams in the conference.

The Vandals need to continue looking at increasing the capacity of the Kibbie Dome (which currently seats 16,000), and perhaps adding an event center which would house the Vandal basketball teams.

"I don't know what we do about changing that perception (of a too-small TV market), we can only control what we can control," Spear said. "There should have been a rush 20 years ago (to improve facilities)."

Spear said the Vandals could be seen in 1.5 million households, "but the Mountain West did not think that was enough," he said.

Spear said one option is for the Vandals to eventually be in the Sun Belt Conference in football, but its preference would be to have all of its sports in a conference in the west. Idaho was a member of the Sun Belt from 2001-04 in football, before joining the WAC in all sports in 2005.

If Idaho were to go independent in football, the Vandals would be required to play a minimum of five home games vs. FBS schools, Spear said.

"The ideal situation for the University of Idaho would be to be in an FBS conference in all of our sports," Spear said.

Spear said he has kept Vandal football coach Robb Akey abreast of all the conference shuffling and how it affects Idaho.

"There's no question coach Akey wants to be a football coach in a Football Bowl Subdivision conference," Spear said.

Spear said, based on emails he's received, reaction from fans, boosters, etc., has been split over staying in the higher-level FBS, or dropping to FCS, where the Vandals resided until 1996.

Spear said Seattle and Denver, who join the WAC in all sports but football this fall, remain committed to the league. Boise State is scheduled to return to the WAC in all sports but football in 2013, but is reportedly considering other options. Texas-Arlington, slated to join the WAC this fall in all sports but football, is reportedly considering jumping to the Sun Belt.

Obviously the players are wondering what's going on.

"So are we D1 or not ??" Idaho quarterback Dominique Blackman tweeted later Friday afternoon.