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What’s Next For Mountain West, Pac-12 Leftovers

jeremy mauss
·6 min read
20

What’s Next For Mountain West, Pac-12 Leftovers

What will the Mountain West do?

Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire

Future members from the old Pac

We have been somewhat quiet on the latest wild realignment news that has shown the downfall of the Pac-12. Partly because it has not really involved the Mountain West.

Also, this latest round of realignment it sucks to lose a conference and these giant 16-plus leagues aren’t great for the sport. I was around during the failed 16-team WAC that was a blip on the radar. Will these last longterm, probably not.

As for where things stand in the college football world if you have been under a rock.

The Pac-12 is on life support, at best. The teams that do not have a current home are Oregon State, Washington State, Stanford, and Cal.

There have been some rumblings that Stanford and Cal could get a look from the Big Ten but that seems unlikely at this point.

The Mountain West has rarely, if ever, been in a position of strength regarding conference realignment. That may change now as these last four schools from the Pac-12 need some help.

There is value in the Pac-12 name so keeping that brand could be valuable but if any Mountian West schools were to leave for the 2024 season there is that huge buyout.

That is what San Diego State was trying to avoid when asking for an extension when they were looking at joining the band formerly known as the Pac-12.

If we are being honest, the Pac-4 can’t be choosy, and getting any teams into their league is likely impossible. So, what are those schools going to do and what can the Mountain West do?

PODCAST: What Is Next For The Mountain West Now That Pac-12 Is Gone?

Add All Four

The easiest transition would be for the Mountain West to take all four schools and have a 16-team football conference and a 15-team basketball conference.

This would be great for new commissioner Gloria Nevarez to have these programs, especially Stanford which has one of the best athletics programs in the country, if not the best.

If this happens, would CBS and FOX come in and renegotiate a TV deal that is currently worth about $4 million per year? With more inventory that is a possibility, plus FOX wouldn’t be paying for Pac-12 starting in 2024 so there could be some cash lying around.

Now, it wouldn’t be that much but it should increase with more inventory and if we still believe in markets playing a role, the Mountain West would own the Bay Area and a little bit of the Pacific Northwest.

Market rankings nationally

6. Bay Area (Stanford, Cal, San Jose State)

16. Denver (Colorado State)

20. Sacramento-Modesto (Fresno State)

21. Portland (Oregon State)

27. San Diego (SDSU)

30. Salt Lake City (Utah State)

40. Las Vegas (UNLV)

Not bad but not great. However, Utah State doesn’t really draw viewers in Salt Lake City with the University of Utah and BYU around. Also, Colorado State shares the state and is overshadowed by Colorado. The same goes for Oregon State in the Portland market.

Having these four schools would create something new for the conference and perhaps get a media rights deal of around $10 million per year, maybe?

Just The PNW Schools?

While Stanford and Cal have had minimal interest from the Big Ten, this scenario relies on the Cardinal and Golden Bears to go independent. Stanford can easily do this with its enormous endowment and can get good games with some of its longtime important rivals like USC, UCLA, and Notre Dame.

Cal is in massive debt and getting a media rights deal cut to pieces won’t help them. They could go the same route with Stanford and schedule some “buy games” to get cash. The last sentence seems wrong to say for a Pac-12 team.

They could go to the Big West in other sports and join that league.

The Mountain West would bring in Oregon State and Washington State to have a 14-team football and 13-team basketball league. They’d get a few more bucks and play some new teams.

No Stanford, Hello UTEP or NMSU?

This scenario has the Mountain West getting three of the four with Stanford going out on its own. That gives the Mountain West an odd number of football schools with 15.

However, that could open the door for UTEP or New Mexico State as both are geographically out of place in Conference USA. The Miners have a history with about half of the Mountain West teams when they were in the WAC.

The Aggies, on the other hand, have wandered into many leagues and their only real connection is being a rival to New Mexico.

Neither would be a mind-blowing addition but each school has slowly improved in football and New Mexico State has had good success in basketball.

Wild Card Option

With leagues getting bigger and bigger, perhaps the Mountain West can think a bit differently and add non-football members, like Grand Canyon University.

They could be an option according to Arizona Sports radio host John Gambadoro.

On our prior website, I advocated for this move for the Antelopes to join the Mountain West. NCAA Tournament credits are a way for leagues that don’t have mega-dollar media rights deal to find some cash on the side by getting to March Madness and winning games.

Grand Canyon has been to the NCAA Tournament in two of the past three years, has a rabid fanbase, and has had six seasons of over 20 wins in just its decade of being a Division I program.

There is no plan for football at this university anytime soon but their hoops upside could be worth it to add them as a basketball-only member and make that side of the conference have an even number of teams.

Whatever the Mountain West decides to do, it has options and they at the very least should be working to get the four Pac-12 schools that are available.

Story originally appeared on Mountain West Wire