BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

The 8th school must be all-sports, not football-only. I still think Memphis will be involved. One trip there every year (every other year for some sports) won't break the budget. Tulane doesn't do much for me.

Texas State is not an awful alternative; neither is NMSU; at the very least both are more within the Western footprint I think the Pac-12 should aspire to. Nine football and 10 total schools makes for easy scheduling and a reasonable split of the revenue pie.

Supposedly a settlement with the MWC on all issues will be forthcoming in February; as the two western FBS leagues they need to bury the hatchet and work together on scheduling, for all sports. The final Pac-12 addition(s) will be announced shortly after that and final prep for the 2026 unveiling will be full-steam ahead by April.

I wish they could start the league in 2025-26. A third year in limbo/lame-duck status helps nobody.

 

If they took the Dakota twins for football, I’d imagine Saint Mary’s gets the ninth all-sports slot.

 

The Pac-12 is not taking two FCS schools. Period. St. Mary's is not an all-sports school because it does not play football.

You must have eighth full-time members who play FBS football.

The 8th all-sports school will be Memphis, Tulane or Texas State, or a mixture of the three.

 

There was a time where I think they really tried to get it done to start next year but obviously that was just too tight.

I have heard media deal rumors that while nowhere near the P4, is at least three times what the MW will have and that's pretty significant for most of these schools (it obviously is a drop for the original remaining Pac schools).

Get Memphis and Tulane and you essentially have an automatic bid football conference, even if not official.

 

Yeah, this wasn't done to get FCS schools, who also do none for the media value even if they are really good at their level.

This is almost certainly a case of no news is good news. The MW is stuck, thus adding what they have.

The new Pac has a football playoff team this year, that under the rule which you know will get changed has a bye, has one of the best basketball programs in the country and another that just went to the Final Four. It isn't a P4 or really that close, but it isn't bad at all and it carries some weight in a final form.

 

OK now I get what you are saying. I read the requirements as eight FBS level schools regardless of where they parked all their other sports. The wording I saw made it unclear (Section 20.02.6 if anyone needs a sleep aid), but I found a fuller version of the text that describes the necessity of additional sports within the league for a program to count towards the minimum. (The American can have Army and Navy because it already exceeded the minimum with the other football members.)

So under those circumstances, yeah no Dakota schools, at least not by themselves. (Both already outdraw Utah State I would note.) Still think they’d be better off with a Texas school than trying the square peg bit with Memphis or Tulane.

 

Yes. I'd add Texas State and NMSU and call it good. You have nine teams for football, 10 for basketball and seven for baseball. OSU can park its random sports teams (crew, gymnastics, wrestling) in the Mountain West Sports Conference, their new home (along with UW, Cal, UCLA, WSU and Stanford) for M & W crew.

 

If absolutely just need a stop gap for now, I would just add a Texas school. NMSU really adds nothing. No real history, no recruiting ground, no media market. At least with a Texas school, any Texas school, you can claim you get Texas. And then go from there.

I still think they should have gotten UNLV and I was in on New Mexico early on (much better than NMSU on every level with more upside), but Utah State has grown on me. Can't deny they've done some pretty decent things in their AD. Still should have figured out UNLV. I wonder why they weren't on the original list?

I think they thought they could get two more from the MW if needed and screwed that one up.

 

NMSU is a travel partner with UTEP, if that's a consideration any more. That's all.

 

UTEP is going to the new Mountain West, not the new PAC. And NMSU is worse than than any option the PAC could have chosen the first go round, save maybe Hawaii.

 

My bad. Thought the post was about MW expansion. That and I've lost track of how many leagues the Aggies have been in during my lifetime.