Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[Red Comet]

On 2/27/2023 at 11:14 PM, SCMODS said:

BYU & San Diego State would be my picks but we know the Cougars won't be joining anytime as in never. 

 

BYU is joining the Big XII on July 1st of this year. It took at least a decade to convince them to join a conference period, I doubt they're going to just up and jump to the Pac 12 without a bunch of money the Pac-12 doesn't have. 

[SCMODS]

3 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

 

BYU is joining the Big XII on July 1st of this year. It took at least a decade to convince them to join a conference period, I doubt they're going to just up and jump to the Pac 12 without a bunch of money the Pac-12 doesn't have. 

 

No :censored: sherlock. They're just my personal picks. 

[raysox]

I'm sure Utah would love that.

[Geoff]

On 2/27/2023 at 9:53 PM, Burmy said:

In other news, the Pac-12 Football Media Day has been moved to Las Vegas.

If you can read between the lines, this bit of of understated news makes 'em look vigorous.

Just because they moved media day to Vegas, you think they're adding UNLV? It's more tied to the league having their football championship game in Allegiant.

[Burmy]

10 hours ago, Geoff said:

Just because they moved media day to Vegas, you think they're adding UNLV? It's more tied to the league having their football championship game in Allegiant.

With BOTH football and basketball championships in Vegas now, it's inevitable that the Pac-12 will at least try to add 'em.

Edited March 3, 2023 by Burmy
Fixed it...thank you @4_tattoos

[4_tattoos]

58 minutes ago, Burmy said:

With BOTH football and basketball championships in Allegiant now, it's inevitable that the Pac-12 will at least try to add 'em.

Going to assume you meant to say Las Vegas instead of Allegiant, because the Pac-12 tournament is at T-Mobile Arena. 

[McCall]

10 hours ago, Burmy said:

With BOTH football and basketball championships in Allegiant now, it's inevitable that the Pac-12 will at least try to add 'em.

Why? It would make more sense to add them to GET the Championship games in Vegas. They already have the games there, now. They didn't need to add them to do that, so why would they add them now? The only way UNLV gets into the Pac-12 is if they lose many schools to the Big 12/Big Ten.

[Gary]

https://arizonasports.com/story/3514377/report-big-12-recently-contacted-asu-arizona-pac-12-uncertainty/

 

Take away ASU and Arizona and the Pac will probably go after the Nevada schools now

[SCMODS]

Pac-12 demise:

 

Arizona, ASU, Colorado & Utah to the Big 12

 

Oregon & Washington to the Big Ten

 

Oregon State & Washington State to the Mountain West

 

Cal & Stanford drop athletics (just kidding). Probably to the Big Ten or Mountain West. 

 

Eventually each MEGA CONFERENCE will have at least 24 schools. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[colinturner95]

On 2/22/2023 at 2:22 PM, WestCoastBias said:

 

I don't think desperate is the right word, maintaining a presence in the most populated region on the West Coast is just an absolute necessity. That being said if SDSU was UCSD they would be in the Pac-12 already. It was always a Cal and UCLA didn't want a CSU in their conference issue for SDSU. Los Angeles and San Diego are two different places just in the same region, USC and UCLA already accounting for the San Diego market was always just an excuse. 

 

I view adding SMU as the more desperate move. Is a small private school with limited football success located in a very crowded CFB market really going to "capture the Dallas market and open up Texas recruiting pipelines" for the Pac-12? Nope, but hey they have rich alumni! I doubt people in Dallas will even care that Pac-12 teams are playing in their city and why would they. 

 

 

Here's the Pac-12's options based on football success, research status, and market size. 

 

                  Football Success (Past 10 Years)                                            R1 Research                                 Desirable Market

Boise State (3 MW Titles, Six 10 Seasons, 1 NY6 Win)               Colorado State                       San Diego State (3.3 Million)

     Fresno State (3 MW Titles, Five 10 Win Seasons)                       New Mexico                                 SMU (7.7 Million)

  San Diego State (2 MW Titles, Five 10 Win Seasons)                       Nevada                                       UNLV (2.2 Million)

                         SMU (One 10 Win Season)                                                          UNLV

       Utah State (1 MW Title, Three 10 Win Seasons)                          Utah State

 

If the Pac-12 is going off football success then you're absolutely right, Boise State is in along with Fresno State or San Diego State. Or add all three plus one more that's probably based on market, so either UNLV or SMU. This probably should happen. 

 

If they're going strictly off R1 research status then UNLV, Utah State, and Colorado State are probably the top 3. They could continue with the travel partner thing they already have established and add Utah State to pair with Utah and Colorado State to pair with Colorado but that adds no new markets. So UNLV would probably be in for sure here plus one more off that list. No way this would happen. 

 

Or they go based on market size which SDSU and SMU are the obvious winners here, or they decide against SMU since it isn't in the West and go with UNLV. This is what's going to happen.

 

Honestly, no one will be happy because every option kind of sucks. It all feels lackluster and definitely not Power 5, kind of like the new Big 12 but they had some better options. The only way to get the best of all worlds and make everyone in the Pac-12 happy would be if UC Davis and UC San Diego (or even UC Irvine ) somehow had near Power 5 level football teams/athletics and large fanbases. Both bring very high level academics in large metro areas (Sacramento 2.3 Million for Davis). But that's not reality.

It would certainly be nice to see Boise State finally get the jump. But it's not all about football, though BSU's basketball program seems to be on the rise. What sucks is Boise State finally brought the baseball team back, just for Covid to shutter it again. If they had the baseball team, I feel like it would help athletic matters. As for the academics side, we certainly aren't Truck Drivers University anymore but there's still a lot of work to be done, and Boise =/= huge market. 

 

Though I have seen some reports the Big XII has interest in Boise State and Memphis but I don't know how true that is. 

[Burmy]

Of all the Pac-12 schools left, Stanford probably fits the Big Ten's profile the closest academically and culturally.

 

In addition, the Cardinal will be the missing piece needed for the Big Ten to finally lure the grand prize of this decades-long game of Musical Conferences; Notre Dame football.

[WestCoastBias]

47 minutes ago, colinturner95 said:

It would certainly be nice to see Boise State finally get the jump. But it's not all about football, though BSU's basketball program seems to be on the rise. What sucks is Boise State finally brought the baseball team back, just for Covid to shutter it again. If they had the baseball team, I feel like it would help athletic matters. As for the academics side, we certainly aren't Truck Drivers University anymore but there's still a lot of work to be done, and Boise =/= huge market. 

 

Though I have seen some reports the Big XII has interest in Boise State and Memphis but I don't know how true that is. 

 

It feels like Boise getting into a P5 has lost most of its steam with the football team coming back down to Earth and just being another top Mountain West team like San Diego and Fresno, plus the small market and academics. But yeah Big 12 would prob be the best bet for getting in though. 

[sportsfan7]

1 hour ago, SCMODS said:

Pac-12 demise:

 

Arizona, ASU, Colorado & Utah to the Big 12

 

Oregon & Washington to the Big Ten

 

Oregon State & Washington State to the Mountain West

 

Cal & Stanford drop athletics (just kidding). Probably to the Big Ten or Mountain West. 

 

Eventually each MEGA CONFERENCE will have at least 24 schools. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Cal and/or Stanford, after missing out on the Big 10, join the WCC and go independent for football. IMO that's probably the best cultural fit for them outside of the Big 10.

[sportsfan7]

2 minutes ago, WestCoastBias said:

 

It feels like Boise getting into a P5 has lost most of its steam with the football team coming back down to Earth and just being another top Mountain West team like San Diego and Fresno, plus the small market and academics. But yeah Big 12 would prob be the best bet for getting in though. 

I feel like if the Big 12 wanted Boise they would already be in. If the Pac-12 keeps bleeding though I think Boise would be one of their first picks.

[WestCoastBias]

Here's my latest thought process on the Pac-12.

 

#1 The B1G has no commissioner, their TV deal is already done, and there's reports that some presidents aren't in favor of more expansion. I don't see them adding Oregon, Washington, Stanford, or Cal. At least right now. 

 

#2 Add San Diego State and that's it. You need to keep a presence in Southern California and the Aztecs fit in great culturally, are getting there academically, and they have an athletics department that's as close as you can get to a P5 level for a G5 out west. There's no other obvious adds so don't force it. 

 

#3 Get a TV deal that's at least comparative to the Big-12.  No one's going to leave for the Big-12 if the money is basically the same, why throw away a geographically and academically like minded conference that will give you easier access to the expanded playoff for the same amount of money but now you're playing schools across the country that your fans don't care about and that you have nothing in common with. 

 

#4 Wait it out. Who knows what's going to happen between now and when the next tv contracts are up, the whole tv sports landscape could be different. Maybe this is the best college football contracts get? These nation wide conferences also bring huge questions, we don't know if they'll work out. Maybe the expanded playoff is a huge boon for a conference like the Pac-12 and they see some success that members won't want to lose. Maybe by next round they'll be better expansion candidates (UNLV or CSU get their act together? SMU goes to a couple NY6's? What if UCLA wants to come back home?). 

[BBTV]

59 minutes ago, WestCoastBias said:

academically like minded conference

 

What exactly does this mean?

[jlog3000]

This is a bit off-topic from the major college sports conferences; but I heard from some links or sources that there might be serious talk between mid-major powerhouse school Gonzaga and the Big XII. So I was wondering, should the Zaggin' Bulldogs get an official invitation to join that conference, would it be ideal for the Big XII to get another non-football school similar to Gonzaga's caliber (regardless of whether or not their current men's basketball head coach eventually leaving)? Because in my opinion, having an odd number of member schools just seems not the ideal move.

 

And if Gonzaga does 'move up the ladder', will the WCC plan to find its replacement (and if so, which school(s) would fit there to replace them (including BYU) in any standpoint)? If it's for major city market purposes, would it be Seattle or Denver?

[WestCoastBias]

22 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

What exactly does this mean?

 

Public schools with large enrollments and are research oriented (particularly R-1 status). SDSU isn't R-1 but they are close tho I guess. 

 

So examples out west this would include:

Nevada

UNLV

New Mexico

Colorado State

Utah State

University of California system

[BBTV]

42 minutes ago, WestCoastBias said:

 

Public schools with large enrollments and are research oriented (particularly R-1 status). SDSU isn't R-1 but they are close tho I guess. 

 

So examples out west this would include:

Nevada

UNLV

New Mexico

Colorado State

Utah State

University of California system

 

What's the opposite of a R-# university?  I was able to find R1 and R2 on Wikipedia, but I couldn't find other options, other than teachers colleges.  

[WestCoastBias]

47 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

What's the opposite of a R-# university?  I was able to find R1 and R2 on Wikipedia, but I couldn't find other options, other than teachers colleges.  

 

Well I don't think the Pac-12 would even want a R-2 school unless they had to add them, San Diego State being the exception possibly as they expect to be R-1 by 2025. 

 

But the opposite would be religious universities I guess (like Gonzaga and much of the WCC for instance). Many of the smaller schools in the California State University system aren't even R-2 as well due to focusing more on teaching than research.