GCU to the Mountain West

[unlove]

Remaining WCC teams : St. Mary's, USF, Santa Clara, Pepperdine, San Diego, LMU, Portland and Pacific.
Big West Teams: Irvine, San Diego, Davis, Long Beach, Riverside, Northridge, UCSB, Bakersfield, Cal Poly and Bakersfield.
WAC: Tarlton, UT Arlington, Seattle, Utah Valley, SF Auston, A. Christian, Utah Tech, Southern Utah and Rio Grande.

Take the best two of these considering facilities, history, current quality and market. That gives each team 20 conference games leaving loads of room for a quality OOC. Travel costs would be minimal.

My two would be St. Mary's and USF.

Good list. Isn’t St. Mary’s in the Bay Area? If so why take two schools in the same market? I’d take USD (large market and growing athletics programs especially MBB) and either USF or St. Mary’s (probably lean USF given its richer MBB history, strong academics, and of course market). SD & SF markets would be great adds for MBB plus both are threats for NCAA invites. With Phoenix that would be 3 great markets added and give us head to head competition with PAC in basketball.

 

[Rebel1986]

It is nice to no longer need to push why they should be going after GCU! Now on to see what happens with Toledo, NIU, Texas State, etc....

 

[Rebel1986]

Good list. Isn’t St. Mary’s in the Bay Area? If so why take two schools in the same market? I’d take USD (large market and growing athletics programs especially MBB) and either USF or St. Mary’s (probably lean USF given its richer MBB history, strong academics, and of course market). SD & SF markets would be great adds for MBB plus both are threats for NCAA invites. With Phoenix that would be 3 great markets added and give us head to head competition with PAC in basketball.

St. Mary's is such a tiny school that nobody really knows where they are located. They are located in Moraga California, which is located just outside Oakland, so they are in the same market as SJSU.

 

[utestream]

St. Mary's is such a tiny school that nobody really knows where they are located. They are located in Moraga California, which is located just outside Oakland, so they are in the same market as SJSU.

I think that they should look at UVU as a non football member.

 

[Rebel1986]

I think that they should look at UVU as a non football member.

Interesting idea of going into the back yard of Utah State and picking up a program that could easily surpass Utah State.

 

[RebelScrub]

Adding a quality basketball team is always a good thing. We are losing 4 of our top half basketball programs. We also need more teams to fill out basketball conference scheduling.
The WCC is toast, which means that the MW has a lot of leverage to maybe add these schools. So we can get another quality team at a discount.

The WCC is toast? The MWC is toast..

 

[utestream]

The WCC is toast? The MWC is toast..

The MWC is avocado toast, which is greater than mere toast. The pac 7/8 is a moldy pizza crust, which could have been something had it been prepared properly in the appropriate time. Of course the Big 12, which contains Utah, is French toast with whipped cream and a cherry on the top.

 

[LocoRebel]

Of course the Big 12, which contains Utah, is French toast with whipped cream and a cherry on the top.

It's great when ya have it... but stuck with it too long and you realize all you had was junk and you're still longing for a meal?

 

[Bullmastiff 1]

Interesting idea of going into the back yard of Utah State and picking up a program that could easily surpass Utah State.

Is the MWC toast? No.

Is it ideal. Also no.

But, I'm not so sure the PAC is in great shape right now either. The Gonzaga move looked nice for headlines but they just promised them a full share in their media rights deal. That's an extremely steep price to just aquire a basketball only member.

Also consider this.

Will the PACs media deal be better than the MWC? Yes once they get an 8th member.

But I'm not sure how it sniffs the 12 million or 15 million they were touting early on.

The only way to get the AAC schools to join would be to pay their exit fees AND have a media deal that is North of 12 million dollars. AAC is getting 9 million per year. Any media deal the PAC presents must be close to 12 million per just to accommodate increased travel costs. (I could be off on AAC media deal and how much Memphis actually got. That deal was done 5 years ago with other members like Cincy and SMU who may have received more. Only thing I could find was AAC schools averaged around 9)

The four initial MWC invites will hit the roof if the PAC pats the exit fees for any AAC schools.

Would I rather have been in the PAC initially? Yeah.

Now? Not so sure.

I'd be willing to bet there is some buyers remorse going on right now with where things are at.

MWC on the other hand at least has a conferencevand is still adding inventory.