By Zach Barnett Thompson has been the only commissioner the conference has ever known. Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson will step down effective Dec. 31, the conference announced Wednesday. Thompson, 66, is the only commissioner the conference has ever known. The Mountain West formed in 1998 when the top eight schools — Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, UNLV, Utah, San Diego State and Wyoming — broke away from the WAC. Those schools hired then-Sun Belt commissioner Craig Thompson to run the league. View the original article to see embedded media. The Mountain West quickly …