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

[BostonWu]

Starting football would be a great use of that surplus $100 million sitting in athletic department coffers. All we have to do is put a tax an a ballot to have the city build a 60,000 seat stadium. There's no doubt that would pass in a landslide. The excitement of that new team starting up in a new stadium in Wichita wouldn't have any trouble attracting 60,000 rabid football fans away from supporting KU or K-State, or even OU.

Those first couple of years when we'd likely be playing teams like McNeese State, Houston Christian, Northwestern State, Incarnate Word, and others in the Southland Conference would ensure some lopsided wins and maintain the fan level and support at a fever pitch.

Can't miss!

I believe you're totally underestimating the ICT cavers.

[BostonWu]

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.

UNM unlike UW does bring a major metro area which fits the AAC model.

[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.

[TrackSuitAndTie]

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

[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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[Kung Wu]

Ah. That makes sense. So in a universe where the PAC dissolves, what happens to that 9-digit war chest?

I think it's the greatest Mexican Standoff in athletics history. Oregon State should convince Washington State to join them in leaving for the XYZ conference. Then right after Washington State signs the contract, Oregon State should say an 11th hour board vote is preventing them from leaving, thus they get the full war chest. And vice versa. Publicly they are all about leaving together, but behind closed doors they secretly want the other guy to go.

Now what they should have done is signed a new conference policy that any schools on probation don't get very much media moolah until the current media contract runs out. Then they should have recruited a bunch of DIII and NAIA schools to join their conference to get them to the magic 8 schools that lets them actually keep the conference in tact. Would be easy to find 6 regional DIII schools that want the prestige of being in the PAC. Then siphon those payments into an endowment while grinding the PAC down to oblivion. lol

[Shockm]

Ah. That makes sense. So in a universe where the PAC dissolves, what happens to that 9-digit war chest?

I’ll take a stab at answering that question.

Courts, lawyers, schools, television, NCAA, etc. and then who wins?

[TrackSuitAndTie]

Ah. That makes sense. So in a universe where the PAC dissolves, what happens to that 9-digit war chest?

If it had happened when all the other schools left I believe it would have been equally distributed among the 12 members.

[WuShock16]

Could be wrong, but I think that the PAC 12 brand goes with the money. If the PAC dissolves, the two schools, have no rights to the money.

Ah. That makes sense. So in a universe where the PAC dissolves, what happens to that 9-digit war chest?

[Shockm]

If the PAC 2 is going to take a large chunk of the MWC membership, couldn’t Oregon St and Washington St have just joined the MWC and pocketed the leftover PAC money?

Could be wrong, but I think that the PAC 12 brand goes with the money. If the PAC dissolves, the two schools, have no rights to the money.

[WuShock16]

Basically this version of the PAC will take just about anyone

If the PAC 2 is going to take a large chunk of the MWC membership, couldn’t Oregon St and Washington St have just joined the MWC and pocketed the leftover PAC money?

[Stickboy46]

Basically this version of the PAC will take just about anyone