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West Coast football is reborn

The Pac-12 lives!

Sort of. It's now the Pac-6. Washington State and Oregon State, which never found new homes after the conference collapsed last year, have recruited Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Fresno State to form the nucleus of a new and reinvigorated Pac-something.

Moneywise, it's all stupid. The other Pac-12 schools paid big breakup fees when they left, and that money is being used to pay the breakup fees for the four new schools. That money will now probably be used by the Mountain West to recruit some new teams of their own. Crikey.

At a minimum the new Pac needs eight teams to meet NCAA rules. So who else should they recruit? UNLV? Hawaii? San Jose State? BYU?

32 thoughts on “West Coast football is reborn

  1. D_Ohrk_E1

    The other Pac-12 schools paid big breakup fees when they left

    No. They left money behind, including future payouts from basketball, where post-season revenue is distributed over 6 years after the fact. There was no fee to exit since there was no media agreement in place for the 2024 season.

    At a minimum the new Pac needs eight teams to meet NCAA rules.

    They have 2 years to bring up their numbers to 8, which is the minimum to be considered an FBS conference; any other division or subdivision needs just 7. They'd also need 8 in order to have an automatic qualifier in the FBS championship game, assuming the big boys let them be when the rules are updated in a couple of years.

    So who else should they recruit? UNLV? Hawaii? San Jose State? BYU?

    You mean who else will they recruit? Definitely not BYU, since they're in a richer conference in the Big-12. UNLV, Hawaii, and SJSU would have been invited alongside the four MWC teams, so it's doubtful the "PAC-12" is interested, but maybe? More likely, they'll be looking for teams from the AAC located in the south to expand their market reach and therefore revenue. Wilner says UTSA and Memphis. I can't see Memphis -- too much travel. Maybe North Texas, Rice, Tulane?

    1. erick

      That was my first thought too, but it could be that San Jose State, UNLV, Hawaii and so on aren’t worth paying for, but if the MW dies picking them up for free is worth it.

      I think Tulane and Rice maybe, gets you Houston and New Orleans markets. If the ACC collapses then SMU makes sense.

      I’m sure they hope that the ACC collapses and Stanford and Cal come begging, but there is no way Stanford joins a conference with the likes of Fresno State and Boise State, they’ll go independent before attaching themselves to schools they consider that far beneath them.

        1. erick

          Sure they’re happy to play them in a non-conference game, but be in the same conference? Stanford alums would sooner drink white wine with steak than be in a conference with schools like that.

      1. D_Ohrk_E1

        Sounds like the MWC is interested in pulling up from the FCS, specifically NDSU and SDSU. Maybe Portland State and Eastern Washington?

        Even without South Carolina, FSU, Clemson, and Miami, I think the ACC survives and they do so by robbing the AAC. But, if the ACC collapsed, wouldn't Stanford and Cal be invited into the B1G?

        1. TheMelancholyDonkey

          The MWC is already FBS. The question is whether or not a Pac-? with them would be considered a Power 5 conference.

          1. D_Ohrk_E1

            I mean, the MWC might be interested in pulling teams up from FCS.

            IDK that PAC-12 is going to get an AQ when the next playoff system reshuffle happens in a couple of years, but the constant expansion of FBS might drive the SEC and B1G to split off, don't you think?

            1. erick

              No, technically no conference is an auto qualifier, the rule is the top 5 ranked conference champs get auto bids, realistically, unless something really crazy happens, that is going to be the power 4 and 1 of the others. The new Pac X should have a good chance to be that 5th champ more often than not.

              1. D_Ohrk_E1

                Under the current rules.

                I'm talking about when the playoffs get renegotiated in a couple of years.

                We don't know how the next iteration will work, but the word -- via a Golden Gopher -- is that the B1G and SEC are seeking a guarantee of multiple AQ slots in their conferences as part of an expansion beyond 12.

                It doesn't seem likely that AQ benefit extends to any other conference, except maybe Big-12.

            2. erick

              The end game that everyone expects is whenever the ACC can break their TV deal the top ACC teams and Notre Dame are going to join the BiG and SEC, they’ll be 20-24 teams each and they will break away and be a separate tier all to themselves.

              1. D_Ohrk_E1

                Yeah, but it's not obvious that the ACC will break apart just because the top-4 teams leave. They can always steal from the AAC just as the Big-12 did and what the PAC-12 is likely to do.

                So the death knell, if it comes, is probably coming for the AAC first.

        2. Camasonian

          Ha...Portland State isn't moving up to D1. They don't even have a home stadium. They play their home games at a 7,600 seat HS stadium in the outer Portland suburb of Hillsboro. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsboro_Stadium

          A long time ago they played home games next door to the university at what was then known as Portland Civic Stadium. But that has since been completely remodeled into a soccer stadium for the Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns. I don't think they have any interest in sharing it with Portland State.

          Eastern Washington has its own stadium but it is only HS sized (8,000 seats) and has red turf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roos_Field

          Neither are remotely ready to move up to D1.

          Montana and Montana State would be more likely candidates along with the Dakota schools. At least they have decent stadiums in the 25,000 seat range.

    2. realrobmac

      Tulane is about as far as Memphis from the West Coast. But hey, maybe my Seminoles can join. The way we are playing this year we make an attractive addition. Everyone wants a patsy football team they can beat up on every year. We're more of a baseball school these days . . .

      1. D_Ohrk_E1

        It's actually 300 miles shorter, but I think the issue is, unless there were multiple teams near Memphis, they'd always be travelling at least 3 1/2 hours on an airplane, whereas if it were Tulane, UTSA, and Rice, they'd be in a cluster where some of their trips would be less than 2 hours.

        No way Seminoles would join PAC-12. They'd sooner join Big-12 if neither the SEC nor B1G were interested.

        1. realrobmac

          I was kidding obviously. We aren't suing to get out of the ACC to go to the west coast every other week to play the likes of San Diego State.

  2. paulgottlieb

    I believe that the way college football is supposed to work these days, it will only be a true PAC-8 is they include Ball State and the University of New Hampshire

    1. MikeTheMathGuy

      Well, Cal (Berkeley) is now in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and you can literally see the Pacific Ocean from their stadium.

  3. J. Frank Parnell

    Florida State and Clemson are suing the ACC; there is a significant chance the ACC could blow up. This would give Stanford and Cal a chance to come crawling back to the west coast. Not a sure (or even probable) thing, but not crazy by the standards of these times.

    Meanwhile the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation has announced it will sponsor women's beach volleyball next year, providing a home for the USC and UCLA beach volleyball teams. For whatever reason, the Big 10 does not do beach volleyball.

  4. Vog46

    Hawaii - oh yeh

    Give kids from Boise State a chance to play an away game in Hawaii in the middle of December?
    That's a beautiful thing!
    Shoveling snow in Boise after getting a sunburn in Hawaii - it just doesn't get any better than that

      1. Vog46

        erick
        As KD said "Who should they recruit? Hawaii........?"
        (His words)
        There is definitely a re-alignment going on.
        College sports have become way too big in certain conferences. All too often they are money losers in the "lesser" conferences - which is a shame

  5. CouginShoreline

    They'll take UNLV and Air Force to make eight teams. If the accountants decide a Central Time Zone presence makes sense, then Tulane and Memphis. And if the ACC explodes, which it could at any time, Stanford and Cal could come crawling back.

  6. camusvsartre

    Stanford and Cal if the ACC breaks up. If not I think the two Nevada schools Reno and UNLV. Not impossible they could get Gonzaga and St. Mary's to join as non football schools. That would actually make a really good basketball conference.

    1. Camasonian

      Reno is a fast-growing metro area of around 500,000 and University of Nevada Reno is as well ranked academically as WSU and OSU. So it makes some sense to join along with UNLV. They have a decent stadium. It would actually be the 3rd largest metro area in the league after San Diego and Boise. I think they have more upside than Air Force.

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