Pac 12 expansion

[Zstatman]

Utah State has evidently accepted an invitation to join the Pac 12. Interesting that all seven now committed to the Pac 12 have the name State.

UNLV and Air Force signed grants of rights with the Mountain West to remain, but they are non-binding so both could still bolt.

As it stands today, both the Pac 12 and Mountain West have Severn members which is one short of the required eight.

Neither has a team in Texas so I'd look there.

I'd guess it all still depends on what happens with the Florida St and Clemson lawsuits trying to get out of their grant of rights agreements with the ACC. If successful, the dominoes will really start to fall.

 

[Hawkboys]

I'd guess it all still depends on what happens with the Florida St and Clemson lawsuits trying to get out of their grant of rights agreements with the ACC. If successful, the dominoes will really start to fall.

Everything I've read recently seems to indicate that neither the B1G nor the SEC readily opened their doors to either school, so both are looking at staying with the ACC with a different payout model offered where the popular schools get more $$ if they're on TV more. Personally, I think the B1G "dated" them hoping for a breakup so they would get the ACC to fold and ND would have to join the B1G.

 

[guffus]

Utah State has evidently accepted an invitation to join the Pac 12. Interesting that all seven now committed to the Pac 12 have the name State.

UNLV and Air Force signed grants of rights with the Mountain West to remain, but they are non-binding so both could still bolt.

I guess the agreement that UNLV and AFA signed, to remain in the MWC, was contingent on all 8 remaining MWC schools signing the same agreement.

When Utah St failed to sign it, and instead accepted the invite from the PAC, then whole agreement to save the MWC was voided.

UNLV and AFA are free to consider other options now. Of course normal exit fees still apply.

 

[Fryowa]

As it stands today, both the Pac 12 and Mountain West have Severn members which is one short of the required eight.

It's still farting in the wind. If you don't have at least 2-3 big name programs you're never coing to be considered a power conference.

I don't get why you think it's such a big deal that the PAC12 makes a resurgence. It's gone and it ain't coming back. The future of college football is 2 mega conferences, followed in a few years by a single collective that has no affiliation with the NCAA. Which is how it should be.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

It's still farting in the wind. If you don't have at least 2-3 big name programs you're never coing to be considered a power conference.

I don't get why you think it's such a big deal that the PAC12 makes a resurgence. It's gone and it ain't coming back. The future of college football is 2 mega conferences, followed in a few years by a single collective that has no affiliation with the NCAA. Which is how it should be.

Agreed. Unless the Pac12 can convince Stanford and Cal to come back into the fold for practical reasons (and to be clear, I don't even know if they can leave the ACC), then the Pac 12 would be better off just fully merging with the MW and maybe adding a small team from Texas. Its a 4th tier conference, but probably a step above the MAC. They have few good options.

 

[Will C]

I still think the BIG is more than football or should be. I want Stanford and Cal.

 

[Zstatman]

I think I can, I think I can............


The Pac 12 announced Gonzaga is going the conference as a basketball only program. This still leaves them one school short of the required full-time eight members.

The Moutain Wast announced Texas-El Paso (UTEP) is rejoining the conference as a full member. The MWC is also still one full-time member short as Hawaii is a football only program.

Stay tuned

 

[NorthKCHawk]

I think I can, I think I can............


The Pac 12 announced Gonzaga is going the conference as a basketball only program. This still leaves them one school short of the required full-time eight members.

The Moutain Wast announced Texas-El Paso (UTEP) is rejoining the conference as a full member. The MWC is also still one full-time member short as Hawaii is a football only program.

Stay tuned

That's still a really good get for the Pac 12 and a nice fit for the Zags. It will warrant more TV money for sure.

My prediction is that once Florida State and Clemson can bolt for the SEC, Stanford and Cal will revert back to the Pac 12 and you will have something resembling a viable major conference.

Then the SEC and Big 10 breakaway to form an NFL type league, leaving the ACC, Pac 12, Big 12, and the MACs to compete for a smaller trophy.

 

[trj]

If the inevitable is going to happen, the Big 12 should have went after Gonzaga and added Connecticut.

 

[Fryowa]

I think I can, I think I can............


The Pac 12 announced Gonzaga is going the conference as a basketball only program. This still leaves them one school short of the required full-time eight members.

The Moutain Wast announced Texas-El Paso (UTEP) is rejoining the conference as a full member. The MWC is also still one full-time member short as Hawaii is a football only program.

Stay tuned

Is there a reason behind you wanting the PAC12 to somehow become a power conference?

Honest question...trying to figure out your angle on this. Genuinely curious...did you go to a PAC12 school, are you somehow invested in the PAC12 surviving?

That conference is dead in football and isn't coming back no matter how many Gonzagas or G5 schools they add. It's not 1999 anymore.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

Is there a reason behind you wanting the PAC12 to somehow become a power conference?

Honest question...trying to figure out your angle on this. Genuinely curious...did you go to a PAC12 school, are you somehow invested in the PAC12 surviving?

That conference is dead in football and isn't coming back no matter how many Gonzagas or G5 schools they add. It's not 1999 anymore.

For me, I am not rooting for any conference to fail or win other than the Big 10, but I would like to get to the end point and have stability in college football. This constant change and sand under the feet is hard for us older gents to keep up with.

As I posted above, if we cannot keep the status quo that we have now, which I don't think is possible, I am rooting for a system where there is a true top shelf league comprised of the SEC and Big 10 that is formatted similar to the NFL. Obviously, Iowa is a part of that and Iowa State is not. Iowa State is then relegated to the AAA system comprised of the ACC, Pac 12, and Big 12.

That would make me smile.

 

[Fryowa]

For me, I am not rooting for any conference to fail or win other than the Big 10, but I would like to get to the end point and have stability in college football. This constant change and sand under the feet is hard for us older gents to keep up with.

As I posted above, if we cannot keep the status quo that we have now, which I don't think is possible, I am rooting for a system where there is a true top shelf league comprised of the SEC and Big 10 that is formatted similar to the NFL. Obviously, Iowa is a part of that and Iowa State is not. Iowa State is then relegated to the AAA system comprised of the ACC, Pac 12, and Big 12.

That would make me smile.

The biggest thing is to get the NCAA out of college football and basketball and let them do their thing as it was intended...regulating amateurism. Power conference football and basketball players aren't amateurs and then the NCAA wouldn't have the mafioso millionaires running it, because there wouldn't be millions to be made. You'd get people in there making the right decisions for the golfers and rowers and fencers and bowlers. The gangsters and politicians like Emmert and Baker wouldn't be drawn to those jobs.

I'm all for a large unified conference of 48 teams or whatever it ends up being.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

The biggest thing is to get the NCAA out of college football and basketball and let them do their thing as it was intended...regulating amateurism. Power conference football and basketball players aren't amateurs and then the NCAA wouldn't have the mafioso millionaires running it, because there wouldn't be millions to be made. You'd get people in there making the right decisions for the golfers and rowers and fencers and bowlers. The gangsters and politicians like Emmert and Baker wouldn't be drawn to those jobs.

I'm all for a large unified conference of 48 teams or whatever it ends up being.

Agree on football. It just needs to break away, hire a commissioner, and regulate itself similar to the NFL.

I assume that if the Big 10 and SEC broke away, the lesser conferences would do something similar and just be the second tier college football.

I don't see MBB breaking away. First, march madness is like 90% of the NCAA's operating budget. Take that away, and there is no NCAA. Plus, what about WBB? Or baseball? Or wrestling? Those are revenue generating sports in some places. And what about that blonde gymnastic gal from LSU that is worth millions? How does the NCAA regulate her? Or CC?

Football needs to break away because it is too big to fall under the NCAA's umbrella and it is not sophisticated enough to handle what football has become. Not sure we are there yet on other sports.

Getting the NCAA focused on running amateur athletes is a laudible goal. Its a sticky wicket though.

 

[Zstatman]

Is there a reason behind you wanting the PAC12 to somehow become a power conference?

Honest question...trying to figure out your angle on this. Genuinely curious...did you go to a PAC12 school, are you somehow invested in the PAC12 surviving?

That conference is dead in football and isn't coming back no matter how many Gonzagas or G5 schools they add. It's not 1999 anymore.

Down deep I could care less if the Pac 12 survives. I thought it was dead and was OK with that.

But what I can get behind is the underdog trying their best, doing whatever they can, to survive. It was a Pac 12 deputy commissioner, a lady in fact, that said, let's not give up the ghost, let's see if there isn't something we can do to survive and eventually grow. I don't see the Pac 12 being what it was, at least in my lifetime, but I can root for what they are trying to do.

 

[Fryowa]

Down deep I could care less if the Pac 12 survives. I thought it was dead and was OK with that.

But what I can get behind is the underdog trying their best, doing whatever they can, to survive. It was a Pac 12 deputy commissioner, a lady in fact, that said, let's not give up the ghost, let's see if there isn't something we can do to survive and eventually grow. I don't see the Pac 12 being what it was, at least in my lifetime, but I can root for what they are trying to do.

It’s like rooting for a kindergartner to dunk a basketball because he’s an underdog. There’s literally not a snowball’s chance in hell of them competing with other of the other 3 conferences, not even a JV league like the B12.

 

[Zstatman]

Merton Hanks is still a staff member of the Pac 12 conference with the title of:

Executive Associate Commissioner, Football Operations

 

[eyekwah]

NCAA College Football and Basketball is comatose. If anybody thinks attending college classes in order to participate on a men's football or basketball team, then remain a fool. Ohio State put a minor league NFL team against Iowa on Saturday. Fry commented the NCAA needs to get out of the way, I have to agree. Under the laws today amateurism is dead. It serves no useful purpose. If the PAC 12 can live with 7 teams, that should be their prerogative. Same for the Mountain West.

What must happen? What is now college football somehow has to morph into a minor football league with two divisions. It is probably two conferences of 12 teams. It comes with salary caps and limited roster sizes. Essentially the university sponsors a football and men's basketball team. If players want to take some classes they can, but not required.

 

[Zstatman]

Hawaii has announced that starting in 2026 they are joining the Mountain West in all sorts.

This gets the MWC back to the required 8 full-time members.

 

[HuckFinn]

NCAA College Football and Basketball is comatose. If anybody thinks attending college classes in order to participate on a men's football or basketball team, then remain a fool. Ohio State put a minor league NFL team against Iowa on Saturday. Fry commented the NCAA needs to get out of the way, I have to agree. Under the laws today amateurism is dead. It serves no useful purpose. If the PAC 12 can live with 7 teams, that should be their prerogative. Same for the Mountain West.

What must happen? What is now college football somehow has to morph into a minor football league with two divisions. It is probably two conferences of 12 teams. It comes with salary caps and limited roster sizes. Essentially the university sponsors a football and men's basketball team. If players want to take some classes they can, but not required.

Most of what you say…Nope.

 

[Fryowa]

NCAA College Football and Basketball is comatose. If anybody thinks attending college classes in order to participate on a men's football or basketball team, then remain a fool. Ohio State put a minor league NFL team against Iowa on Saturday. Fry commented the NCAA needs to get out of the way, I have to agree. Under the laws today amateurism is dead. It serves no useful purpose. If the PAC 12 can live with 7 teams, that should be their prerogative. Same for the Mountain West.

What must happen? What is now college football somehow has to morph into a minor football league with two divisions. It is probably two conferences of 12 teams. It comes with salary caps and limited roster sizes. Essentially the university sponsors a football and men's basketball team. If players want to take some classes they can, but not required.

Most of what you say…Nope.

I'm not saying take the college part out of it at all. I'm saying take the NCAA out of it. They're the reason all this craziness came about in the first place. NCAA was created to structure and oversee amateurism in collegiate sports and it turned into a 10-figure corporate monstrosity trying to make money. Amateurism in basketball and football is dead. That's a fact.

Lots of (most I'd guess) D1 football and basketball players want college educations because they aren't going to make money at their sports afterwards, and many star players are gifted academically as well.

What I'm saying is you can have both. You can make money playing sports in college and have it regulated like a pro league if the NCAA gets out of the picture. There's nothing wrong with a super conference/league/whatever you want to call it made up of the best teams in the country.

Conferences were originally created because travel back then was by bus and rail, and it made sense to have groups of geographically close schools play each other in leagues like the Big Ten, Big 8, SEC, etc. Then at the end of the year you take the best teams in those conferences and have bowls and national tournaments. Long distance travel was prohibitive and expensive in 1910. It's still expensive, but it's a miniscule drop in a huge bucket of money for these teams now, and with air travel and caravans of semi-trucks hauling equipment it's no longer prohibitive.

Conferences as they exist now are obsolete except for nostalgic purposes and tradition only. I get it that people cling to it and I do sometimes myself as well. But the world changes and things evolve, and they always have. They will always continue to do so and we aren't going to stop it.

The NCAA could go back to regulating non-revenue sports like it was intended to. But they won't because then the people running it wouldn't become millionaires working there. That alone should tell people it's a BS organization.