PAC 8?
- By dcut03
- Rebel Football
- 78 Replies
SMU got duped with Stanford and Cal. They decided to blindly follow whatever those NoCal schools were going to do. Now they have some cash flow to afford it right now, but in general it isn't good business to do stuff for free when it is worth millions of dollars.Put a fork in the ACC in it's current form. Because stable conferences do not have their flagship football programs (Clemson and Florida State) filing lawsuits against the conference and the conference also suing their flagship football programs (Clemson and Florida State).
Also, I don't blame OSU and WSU for kicking the can down the road on the reverse merger. Because once that decision is made they are done and will be a mid-major program. That's why I feel right now for OSU and WSU money is secondary and they are trying to figure out a way to stay relevant and avoid becoming a mid-major program. If it was just about money, why did SMU forego any media rights in the sum of $28.5 mill from the ACC for the first 7 years and and also, give up the $9 mill per year from the AAC. They actually had to raise $200 mill to help fund their athletic program during the interim 7 years. After 40 years they are finally able to get rid of the mid-major label for the time being.
There will be fall out from the ACC implosion and all 17 teams will not find a home in a power conference because after the ACC power programs leave what's left will be no better off than the PAC 8.
All of that and ACC may dissolve as well. But those 3 definitely seem to be the exception. Every other move has come with a significant bump in media revenue. Why else would these west coast schools willing get in bed with midwest and east coast teams. It is a burden otherwise.
I'm torn on the ACC. I agree it isn't a good sign when the flagship programs are suing. But that contract is what it is, and they agreed to it. They did it at the time when they thought expansion was stopped. So I'm not convinced it is doomed simply because those are the legal terms, but wouldn't be surprised if some sort of blow up happens either.
I think OSU and WAZZU know that they are mid major now, there really is no way around it. They were left behind.
The saving grace would be a ACC blow up and some sort of union/agreement with them for football. I can see a cross conference championship game with a new PAC and the leftover ACC be good enough to perhaps earn a designated seat in the football playoffs. It would be something between the power conference and G5.
But other than setting up a new PAC 8 that can be augmented later, the only other reason that the PAC 2 would wait would be to hopefully get picked up on the next round of additions. It is a long shot, but waiting to the last minute to pull the trigger on a new PAC or a reverse merger leaves a speck of hope for that.