The deal to seal the doom of the PAC-12 was done this morning. As a PAC-12 guy (Washington) almost as long as I’ve been a Miami guy, the demise of the West Coast’s premier athletic conference gives me no joy.
Easily drivable road-trips from Seattle to Pullman, Corvallis and even the cheap Alaska Airlines flights to the Bay Area are being replaced for Husky fans by expensive two or three time zone flights to places like College Park, Indianapolis and Des Moines.
Maybe the newest selling point for the MAC is that it is still a fan-friendly conference.
I used to love ESPN and the big networks. Now I hate them. They killed the joy. Only thing stranger would be if another country starts to buy up the leagues.
I read the former Pac 10/12 members are expecting 10 million dollars in extra travel costs for their various teams. So in the case of the reported deal for Oregon and Washington which will pay them about 30 million a year (half of what current B10 teams will get), 10 million will be spent on extra travel costs, meaning they are getting 20 million a year, or less than the B12 is getting per team. This is insane.
One has to wonder where Washington State, Oregon State, Stanford and perhaps Arizona State will go. Although AZ State apparently angling to join Arizona in the B12. Seems to me the only options are going independent or trying to latch onto the MWC. I could see Stanford going independent if the P12 falls apart as it appears to be.
As someone who’s spent some time around both programs, I think Washington State and Oregon State would fit into the Mountain West fairly seamlessly. But they won’t be happy about it.
I don’t think either Cal or Stanford fit there. I’ve always figured an offer by the Big 10 to Stanford would be the trigger for Notre Dame to join…keeping the Notre Dame, Stanford, USC triad intact. Now I’m not so sure.
If Northwestern were to do something drastic like throwing in the athletics towel altogether, I guess I could see Stanford joining with Cal and Notre Dame. But I don’t see Northwestern willingly walking away from the Big 10 treasure chest.
The MWC has an interlocking grant of rights deal that would cost any program leaving for the PAC 12 a fortune. What’s left of the PAC 12 would have to come into the MWC fold.
And what about the programs that have been aspiring to become P5 teams - like SMU, Tulane and San Diego State. They would seem to be in Limbo.
Cal has a $18 million mortgage on its stadium (taken out for earthquake retrofitting). Gonna be hilarious when the UC Regents redirect UCLA’s B1G revenue to service Cal’s debt.
I had already been losing interest in power conference sports, but this would really push me over the ledge. They’re killing the things that make college sports unique and interesting. I’m not sure what reason there would be to watch something that’s just the NFL, but with a lesser on field product.
We badly need a modern incarnation of the 1905 White House summit where Teddy Roosevelt put the fear of god in college football’s stakeholders and made them fix the sport in order to prevent heavy handed federal regulation.
No, thank God. At least not until after 2026. The money from MACtion floats our boat.
The model has proven itself so successful for a cash-starved conference that CUSA is playing mid-week games during October this season to get their telecasts on a mainstream service.
How flat footed does Stanford look now. That’s one of the most well heeled schools in the country. Getting asked last to the Big 10 is not a great look. I wonder if the AD gets axed. Berkeley has been a mess for years. But Stanford relegated to after thought is mind blowing.
