BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

I think OSU and WSU just didn't want to have much to do with the lower-tier MWC schools, figuring they added nothing to a prospective TV package, or much of anything competitively in football. Undoubtedly some leftover Pac-12 institutional arrogance.

Rumors are now that Memphis will be the 8th team, with some adjustments to the previous offer sheet. Supposedly there has been considerable blowback from Memphis boosters about remaining in the AAC.

IF Memphis comes (alone), and if Gonzaga joins, the Pac-9 will be the best G5 football league and a potentially-outstanding men's basketball league. That wouldn't be possible with the other six MWC teams. A 9-team Pac with the current (and possible future) membership is far superior to a 14-team league.

 

Well aware. It is further from Houston to El Paso than it is from Atlanta to Houston.

 

Keep in mind that the four MWC schools that went Pac did so in large part to get away from the boat anchors at the bottom of the league, both in terms of RPI/SOS and conference pay out. They don't want to be with those schools. Add that there is undoubtedly more than a little enmity from the MWC left behinds.

 

No supposedly to it. The Memphis fans have thrown an ongoing shitfit about it. New Pac is going to be a very good hoops league. Memphis feels very put upon that they had not already been taken by another conference. Add that the cream of the AAC they were in left and were replaced by the CUSA 6, at least four of whom they consider trash.

They've had itchy feet for years, both in CUSA and the AAC, and they remain convinced the grass is greener. Give them a couple of years in the Pac and they'll decide that league sucks too and they should rightfully be in the ACC.

 

I remain unconvinced that having to share a league with San Jose State or Wyoming is a worse look than trying to fluff up Texas State or something. And I am still skeptical that Memphis will agree to be on an island back east, or that Tiger fans will give much of a shit about the western schools the second time they come through town.

 

Oh, they'll hate it immediately, and the same jackasses who are throwing a fit now will be the first to dump on the conference later. Memphistigers.org is a cesspool.

 

The offer sheet for the new Pac-12 allows for withdrawals from the league to a P4 league with minimum penalties. That could give Memphis the cover it needs to commit.

I also think it is very doubtful any P4 team will be expanding. They don't want to divide the rights-fee pie any more.

 

They're thinking about after the ACC blows up, and hoping that it happens sooner than later. There is a sizable minority who would rather stay in the AAC and wait for that instead of going Pac as it is.

 

Honestly a redraft of every FBS team into new leagues would draw better ratings than every weeknight bowl combined.

 

From the close of the article Dixie posted about the Pac - 2 wanting to keep all the playoff money.


"AD Scott has been upfront and steadfast since he was hired in his belief that Memphis deserves a spot in a power conference.

That has not changed.

“Our aspirations are to compete at the highest level. I don’t know if that’s going to be in the AAC, the ACC or the Big 12," he said. "I want to compete against the big boys and girls, and I want to beat them."

 

Los Angeles to El Paso (810 miles) is closer than El Paso to Beaumont (830), as well.