The Mountain West Conference’s current TV rights negotiations are all about the money, exposure and, given the dynamics, maybe a side order of one-upmanship.

Securing improved moolah and providing wider visibility for the 12 members in a conference where the University of Hawaii is a football-only participant, is Job One in the three-month-old negotiations with potential TV partners.

But if, in the course of securing those big ticket items, the MWC and its consultants could throw some shade on the rival American Athletic Conference, you get the feeling that would be a cherished exclamation point.

Since the AAC came into being in 2013, the result of a parting of ways of the old Big East Conference football and basketball schools, the league that features Central Florida, Houston, Navy and Cincinnati has tended to look down upon the MWC and the rest of the conferences not in the elite, more well-heeled Power Five (the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern).

Seeking to distance itself from the more austere Group of Five conferences (Conference USA, Mid-American, MWC and Sun Belt), the AAC has branded itself as a “Power Six” league, an entity that is closer to the P5 than the G5.

AAC commissioner Mike Aresco uses the “P6” reference at every opportunity and the league slaps “P6” emblems on the helmets of its football players.

Of course, it has supplied three of the five G5 entrants in the prestigious New Year’s Six bowl lineup since the College Football Playoff was established while the MWC and MAC have managed one each.

More recently, the AAC’s media rights agreement in March, a 12-year, $1 billion deal with ESPN, has set the bar for leagues outside the P5. The contract is said to be worth $7 million per year to each AAC member through 2031-32.

While the AAC contract might not prove as lucrative due to a requirement its schools produce some of the live-streaming content for ESPN+, it still outpaces the other G5 conferences to date while falling well short of the $20 million-$40 million of the P5 schools.

The MWC’s deal with ESPN, CBS Sports and AT&T SportsNet, which ends in 2020, is worth about $14 million annually to the conference. Boise State annually gets $1.8 million off the top and then the 11 schools (except UH) each get approximately $1.1 million.

Under membership terms, UH does not share in the pot but retains its local rights fees from Spectrum, listed at $2.53 million for 2019-20.

Now, four months after the AAC’s ground-breaking deal, the MWC is seeking one that will set the foundation for its future and, you suspect, top the AAC’s agreement. One the AAC might be compelled to renegotiate down due to the recently announced departure of Connecticut.

A person briefed on the situation said the MWC is using the same media consultant, California-based Wasserman Media Group, that the AAC initially engaged. Wasserman’s senior vice president of properties, Tag Garson, was previously ABC/ESPN’s director of acquisition strategy and digital development.

Wasserman wasn’t involved at the end of the AAC’s agreement with ESPN, but an AAC spokeswoman said it was not because the rival MWC had also engaged the firm.

Two months in, the MWC declines to discuss the status of its negotiations or the role of consultants, saying, “The conference will have no further comment until such time as we are prepared to make an announcement.”

But be assured the MWC would enjoy getting some one-upmanship over the rival AAC on its way to the bank.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.