Realignment Carousel Spins Up again (USC and UCLA to Big 10)

[SubGod22]

The PAC taking UNLV and Utah State would be great as it would guarantee that we could pull AFA (I think that's already going to happen) and New Mexico. I don't care much about Wyoming but Nevada wouldn't be bad, outside of being on a bit of an island at that point. Still worth considering. But I think AFA and New Mexico have to be targets to go after hard. AFA will help football a bit and New Mexico should help basketball a fair amount.

Wyoming can be decent at either, but I'm not sure they're reliable. There was a time I was willing to bring them in should we land the other three front range schools and they insisted. I'm pretty indifferent on them. Was really hoping Utah State would remain in play, but it sounds like they may not be an option. Nevada would make a little more sense if we had them.

Would the AAC be interested in another non-football school and go after a Grand Canyon just so there was a 4th western team for most sports?

It will be interesting to see what the MWC does should the AAC and PAC end up taking a couple more schools. I'd be curious as to which FCS schools, or new FBS Texas schools might consider joining. Because that would really be their only course of action to maintain football as a conference. Hawaii and San Jose State are pretty much guaranteed to be left and maybe a couple of others.

[BAShocker]

Serious question. From a football only perspective, who has the greater draw, audience, history, future etc., New Mexico or Wyoming? Basketball and probably most of the other sports…I would assume is New Mexico. But just looking at football only, I am not sure. Interested to hear what others think.

[SubGod22]

Serious question. From a football only perspective, who has the greater draw, audience, history, future etc., New Mexico or Wyoming? Basketball and probably most of the other sports…I would assume is New Mexico. But just looking at football only, I am not sure. Interested to hear what others think.

I'm not sure if either bring much of a draw to football in general. Wyoming is hurt by being in one of the least populated states in the union. The state population is about 70k less than the Wichita metro area. I'm guessing Wyoming doesn't have much of a national or regional fan base either. New Mexico isn't a large state (2.1M), smaller than Kansas, but New Mexico is the flagship of the state. How popular is football in New Mexico in general? I have no idea, but I think from a viewing numbers perspective that UNM would bring more value than UW.

When it comes to attendance, Wyoming has an edge of about 3k per game on average over the past 5 years. Not significant nor overly relevant to media deals. UNM does have a bigger stadium which means more potential growth of game day fans.

Neither school has ever won the MWC. Same with AFA, Hawaii, UNLV, Nevada, and Colorado State.

[Aargh]

I'm skeptical that UNM could add enough eyes for broadcast FB to cover their revenue share. It seems they would dilute the revenue pool. AFA should be revenue positive. Maybe between the two of them it might be revenue neutral.

[TrackSuitAndTie]

Apparently the AAC schools have been leery about adding schools to the west of their current footprint.

[SubGod22]

Apparently the AAC schools have been leery about adding schools to the west of their current footprint.

That only happened when AFA and CSU backed out on us a few years ago. And I believe we had our eyes on more if that worked out. I think the west was always going to be a target when the timing worked out. With the PAC picking pieces now, the timing is right.

But if there's too much concern about going too far west, AFA and UNM still make sense. UNM would also bring in one of the best basketball venues in the country. If we lose Memphis and Tulane, I say just add those two and call it good. I don't like the jump from Colorado Springs to Reno should Utah State and UNLV both go to the PAC. I'd get the hesitancy there, even though Nevada would be a pretty solid add if it worked out.