Where would you rate the Mountain West Conference among the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern and other major conferences for a winning tradition, willingness to change with the times, sportsmanship and being on the upswing in popularity?

The future home of the University of Hawaii football team would like to know.

The MWC is asking these and other questions of 74,073 registered subscribers to UH’s online "H-mail" weekly newsletter, where the school requests its fans "please participate in this important survey."

"The aim is to get feedback on performance and look for ways to improve or enhance what we do as a league in the future," said Javan Hedlund, MWC associate commissioner.

He said the conference is surveying incoming members as well as holdovers.

Speculation is that the MWC is measuring its brand strength and perception, possibly looking at rebranding possibilities as its membership undergoes major change. Boise State joins the MWC this summer as Brigham Young and Utah depart. In 2012 UH, Fresno State and Nevada come aboard as Texas Christian exits.

As of yesterday, 741 responses from Hawaii fans had been received, said Dan Butterly, MWC associate commissioner.

"I am strongly encouraged by this number, as it is more than the average we thought we might get from each institution for an online survey when we started the online research process," Butterly said.

He declined to reveal the total number of respondents conference-wide.

Butterly said "the online survey will remain open for data collection until mid-April and based on discussions with John McNamara (UH associate athletic director), he indicated they are going to send the survey link again in an upcoming newsletter. There is still an opportunity for those that want to participate to do so."