Welp! With Arizona voting to join the Big 12 tonight, and surely ASU going with, the dominoes are about to start falling very quickly. Utah will likely join UA and ASU, and there are already rumors of Washington and Oregon, along with Stanford and Cal, heading off to the B1G.

After all that, the PAC 12, *ahem*...I mean the PAC "2", will look like this:

• Oregon State
• Washington State
  

At that point the PAC 12 MUST absorb the entire MWC to survive ‐ with the additions of SMU, and a few others.

If the MWC then goes poaching to remain sranding on its own, which it most certainly has the wherewithal to do, things could get very interesting very quickly for Big Sky, UAC and other FCS conferences/schools. Here we go!

So who raids whom? MWC is unlikely to get PACers left around. I assume the left-overs from the PAC will look for something a bit more visible -- but what could that be? The Big 10 or the Big 12 seems a bit of a reach but maybe. There really is a place for something between the P2 (or P3) and all the remaining conferences for a creation of an intermediate FBS conference a bit stronger than the options on the table now. For example, CUSA is not really what an Oregon State is looking for. It just seems strange that conference realignment is going to produce such distant rivalries rather than more compact distances, but I just don't see an optimum answer right now with the existing picked over or over stuffed conferences.

Note: Just read the PAC and the ACC are in talks. Florida State of the ACC is thinking the money is better in the SEC.

In all reality, a conference “above” us needs to die. Until that happens, and schools flow downward, we will always be in a constant state of reshuffling, reloading and uneasiness. Hate to see any conference die, but at some point, one does have to do so.

Utah and ASU getting closer to leaving.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/u...77bb&ei=11

Never would have the the PAcC would dissappear before the WAC, but there is a decent chance that will happen.

The reality is the Pac ran into the same thing the WAC did. Who from the Mountain West can you call up to field a full conference that will keep the conference at its current tier? Just like the WAC had with no one to call up, the remaining four in the Pac have very few options.

(08-04-2023 06:49 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  The reality is the Pac ran into the same thing the WAC did. Who from the Mountain West can you call up to field a full conference that will keep the conference at its current tier? Just like the WAC had with no one to call up, the remaining four in the Pac have very few options.

Agree, some are saying that rounding up SDSU, UNLV, NDSU, SDSU, Boise, and SMU will save the PAC12, others say it will survive without losing schools we think are gone. I personally think it will struggle to stay together because it's in the same situation the WAC was in decades ago and continuing to lose its prestige in the current FBS climate only makes the situation worse... I do think we are already witnessing the new DI-A, DI-AA and DI-AAA. As we do the differences between DI-AA and DI-AAA will become less as the DI-A moves further away. To a degree, a 3-tiered DI has been there for decades. It's just becoming more formal business and less regional.

(08-04-2023 07:14 PM)Outsider Wrote:  

(08-04-2023 06:49 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  The reality is the Pac ran into the same thing the WAC did. Who from the Mountain West can you call up to field a full conference that will keep the conference at its current tier? Just like the WAC had with no one to call up, the remaining four in the Pac have very few options.

Agree, some are saying that rounding up SDSU, UNLV, NDSU, SDSU, Boise, and SMU will save the PAC12, others say it will survive without losing schools we think are gone. I personally think it will struggle to stay together because it's in the same situation the WAC was in decades ago and continuing to lose its prestige in the current FBS climate only makes the situation worse... I do think we are already witnessing the new DI-A, DI-AA and DI-AAA. As we do the differences between DI-AA and DI-AAA will become less as the DI-A moves further away. To a degree, a 3-tiered DI has been there for decades. It's just becoming more formal business and less regional.

Bingo... There really are three levels already.

So is it official?? Utah, UofA and ASU to Big12. I think that even if the PAC survives, it's now officially DI-AA...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/t...386e&ei=13

So, I missed that Oregon & Washington indeed went to the Big-10.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...low-pac-12

Cal, Stanford, Oregon St and Washington St plus no TV contract that was struggling with the much better teams still in the conference, what MWC school would pay a $32 million exit to enter? Any other school. SMU wants to bail for less money and higher travel costs, coupled with lower exposure?

Unless there's a piece I'm missing, there's no financial sense in schools going to the Pac##?

Just reminiscing and trying to remember, did there once used to be a Rose Bowl???

And the Big 12 is now the Big 16... will it get bigger? Going to be some bottom feeders but with more money.

Arizona State University to West Virginia University is 2069 miles. WOW. That won't be bus trips.

(08-04-2023 11:59 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Cal, Stanford, Oregon St and Washington St plus no TV contract that was struggling with the much better teams still in the conference, what MWC school would pay a $32 million exit to enter? Any other school. SMU wants to bail for less money and higher travel costs, coupled with lower exposure?

Unless there's a piece I'm missing, there's no financial sense in schools going to the Pac##?

The piece you're missing is gobs of cash available in the form of CFP payouts to the PAC "P5" entity. That in itself trumps a $34 mil exit fee. A fee that goes away if the two "MERGE" into the PAC 14-16. Fact is, the PAC, even as beat up as it is today, has way more value and future revenue potential than MWC ever will. I still say there is no way the PAC just simply dies on the vine. Not with that much money at stake.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/spo...l-stanford

I still see Cal and Stanford heading off to B1G, making it the top academic P5 conference by a long shot, which matters very much to university presidents. Ultimately it will be WAZZU and Oregon State that holds on to save the PAC. Most, if not all, of MWC plus SMU is not a horrible looking conference IMO, but they'll need to grow up fast.

(08-06-2023 05:48 PM)Itinerant Texan Wrote:  

(08-04-2023 11:59 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Cal, Stanford, Oregon St and Washington St plus no TV contract that was struggling with the much better teams still in the conference, what MWC school would pay a $32 million exit to enter? Any other school. SMU wants to bail for less money and higher travel costs, coupled with lower exposure?

Unless there's a piece I'm missing, there's no financial sense in schools going to the Pac##?

The piece you're missing is gobs of cash available in the form of CFP payouts to the PAC "P5" entity. That in itself trumps a $34 mil exit fee. A fee that goes away if the two "MERGE" into the PAC 14-16. Fact is, the PAC, even as beat up as it is today, has way more value and future revenue potential than MWC ever will. I still say there is no way the PAC just simply dies on the vine. Not with that much money at stake.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/spo...l-stanford

I still see Cal and Stanford heading off to B1G, making it the top academic P5 conference by a long shot, which matters very much to university presidents. Ultimately it will be WAZZU and Oregon State that holds on to save the PAC. Most, if not all, of MWC plus SMU is not a horrible looking conference IMO, but they'll need to grow up fast.

The PAC is P5 based on the contributions of Washington, Oregon and USC. You're kidding yourself if you think they will stay P5 with Cal, Stanford, OSU, WSU and any G5 combo. See Big East.

The MWC exit fee is $34M for next summer… and $17M for summer 2025 until the next June 30.

Since I think it’s 90% possible Stanford drives this bus, it’d be interesting to see them go after SMU, Rice, and Tulane. Then, who, UC Davis? Then you choose from Mountain West schools next year.

The above is a possibility. Stanford and Cal finding their way to the Big 10 Plus 8 is a slightly larger possibility (every time I mention the last week of this to my wife, she says BIG 18 with enough “off tone” that I lose my train of thought). The merger is a possibility, but to know Stanford (and, to some degree, Cal) is to know to not believe it until you see it.

The Pac loses 8 teams in 11 months. The replacements have to be there by then.

It is a very difficult time for non-revenue sports. Especially problematic is the issue of Title nine and women's sports. The athletic world is being driven by two revenue generating sports: football and basketball, and everything else is an afterthought. I don't much like that. College athletics included the range of sports but the whole reorganization going on is, as we know, due to football and basketball money. I really like both of these sports, but they are causing a lot of issues because of TV money. Not sure where all this comes to a conclusion but I don't think Rutgers playing Southern Cal is what we will stay up late to watch. Seems to me the non-revenue sports need organizing on a regional basis.

New Mexico State has applied to join the PAC 4.

And they (NM Posters) think Tarleton is not CUSA ready? Head Scratcher

Food for thought

(08-06-2023 09:00 PM)BlueDragon Wrote:  New Mexico State has applied to join the PAC 4.

And they (NM Posters) think Tarleton is not CUSA ready? Head Scratcher

Food for thought

Why the hell not, right? Gotta shoot your shot at anything with a pulse if you're nmsu, especially knowing their CUSA lifeline UTEP is all but gone.

Did some digging....as of today, these schools have already filed the paperwork asking to join the PAC 12:

Colorado State
SDSU
SMU
UNLV
Tulane
USF
Boise St
Fresno St
Tulsa
Rice
Memphis
nmsu

Looks like the PAC will not only survive, but can be choosy. UTEP, and the balance of the MWC will also come knocking for their shot at the big time.

PAC bringing in a healthy dose of private school money is a really smart move at this juncture.

You look at that listr and say they can be choosy. Sorry, but no one there draws any P5 status. Some are better than others, but there's no media deal in that group worth the money.