BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

Its one thing for another school to take an action in its best interest like joining another conference, but its another to make an effort to screw over another school, and cause financial harm is another matter.

 

I'm guessing Wazzou and Oregon State are counting on those shares and forthcoming revenue to soften the blow as they fall into MWC Plus.

 

Do Oregon State and Washington State, as the two remining members, have the rights to the Pac 12 name? I think the Mountain West is a fine conference name but if OSU and WSU go to the MWC I think that many of the current member schools would like to adopt the Pac 12 name.

 

Teams that remain in the Pac-12 will own all its intellectual history, the network, and be entitled to all NCAA basketball revenues starting in 2024-25, or so I am led to believe. That's why the reverse merger with the MWC makes more sense, the Pac has more future revenue coming in than the MWC.

 

Agrees:

 

To answer your first question, yes. The other schools that left wouldn’t think twice about letting the folks in Corvallis and Pullman hold the bag. If that’s the case, what right do the departing schools have to complain about what becomes of the PAC-12? They sure didn’t give a flip when they announced their departures.

 

Washington State and Oregon State could just invite the strongest schools into the MWC. I think the three California and Nevada schools currently in the MWC would really like to play in a league called the Pac-something. Add those five schools and you are close to having a conference. Invite the strongest remaining members of the MWC and dump Hawaii and maybe a couple other schools like Wyoming.

 

The MWC has every expensive penalties for teams that withdraw before the TV contract expires in 2025-26. Something like $34 million with anything less than a year's notice, $17 million with a year's notice. MWC schools do not have that kind of cash, so that scenario is impossible.

There are 11 voting members of the MWC (Hawaii, a football affiliate, does not get a vote). It takes nine votes to dissolve the conference. That's not gonna happen if the Pac-2 only offer 6-7 schools to join. (Wyoming is also one of the better-funded MWC schools. Its facilities are as good as anyone's in the current Pac-12, except for Oregon, which overspends on everything with a bunch of bells and whistles which are nice but don't fundamentally impact anything. Their IPC, for example, does not keep one drier, nor will the second one they plan to build.)

OSU and WSU will win their suit that the departing members of the league cannot vote on league issues. There is ample, recent precedent; USC, UCLA and Arizona all lost voting rights when they announced they were leaving. That will also apply to the seven other departees, even if they have not officially signed their conference departure agreement. They have publicly announced they are leaving, their new leagues have announced they are joining. That's good enough for the judge.

Once the Pac-12's future assets (which OSU and Wazzu will control) can be determined, the reverse merger will happen. All 11 MWC schools will join, form the Pac-13; Hawaii adds absolutely nothing but expensive plane and hotel bills and a rinky-dink 9K stadium, and will not be offered affiliate status. Hawaii goes independent or drops its money-losing program.

Gloria Nevarez will be the commissioner, as she is familiar with both leagues, having worked in the Pac-12 for more than a decade. The new Pac-13 will be the strongest G5 league and its champion will have an excellent opportunity to earn a spot in the expanded, 12-team CFP, probably a better chance than every school that left the conference except USC.

Totally regional league, based in the West. No expensive, time-consuming cross-country trips for the soccer or volleyball teams. I expect it can increase its TV rights to a modest $8-10 million per school in the next contract, and work some kind of streaming deal with Apple, which (supposedly) wants to get involved in college football.

A smaller contract with the Pac-13 will enable Apple to test the waters without a huge up-front outlay, as would be required to earn the rights to one of the remaining P4 leagues. Apple could also buy the Pac-12 (13) network and give itself a linear platform if it wishes.

The NCAA men's basketball units earned by the Pac-12, and other league income that will continue to flow and be split only two ways, instead of 12, will help WSU and OSU transition to smaller budgets without having to blow everything up.

The Pac-13 will not be as strong as the old Pac-12, and that is a blow for OSU and Wazzu fans. No way to dispute that. But it's the best solution to a bad problem, and one this fanboie will learn to live with.

Of course, there's also a good chance nothing I just wrote will happen.

 

It’ll still be the Mountain West.

And why would Apple sign one conference when it can just buy ESPN?

 

Mountain West has never been a bad conference in the first place. Easily the best conference apart from the Power Four even without Oregon State and Washington State.

 

It won't be the MWC, because if WSU and OSU join under the MWC banner, the Pac-12 will dissolve. If it dissolves, the millions in future revenue, branding, name-recognition and all associated intellectual property goes "poof." The Pac-12 will earn more in basketball unit payments in 2024-25 alone than the MWC has over the past decade.

The Pac name is still a national brand. The Mountain West isn't. CSU's AD said as much in a Denver Post story last weekend.

As far as Apple's intentions, who knows. Just repeating what I have read.

 

The only reason Apple will buy ESPN is as a tax writeoff. The four letter network is headed the way of newspapers.