Pac 12 to expand into Southern California and Texas?

PAC 12 Conference News
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Just thinking about this, the PAC12 will not crumble. Whether it turns into PAC10, PAC8, it will stay around, get it’s automatic qualifier in bball, and be open (as all conferences will be) to be included in CFP (top 6 conference champions). If USC/UCLA stay in B1G, suffering the eastward travel way too much for almost all sports and 2-4 teams end up in the truck stop conference with regular travel to OH, WV, FL, I’d still rather our teams stay in a western-oriented conference. Hot take - even if it meant we were in a conference with a few former MWC teams. Of course, we need to keep decent funding from TV deals, but we don’t have to have $50M like some conferences. We’ve proved we can outpunch our weight class.

I frankly think football should do it’s own conferences and all other sports stay more regional/historical. Where does it all land? I think the PAC tv/streaming deal is a little lower than hoped for but the other schools will stick it out (maybe even feel a little stuck). We’ll see a huge shuffling in mid 2030s when ACC gor expires. By then, USC/UCLA will see if by coming ‘home’ they can bump up the tv deal amounts. Frankly, it all comes down to the west being more sparse with fewer population centers as the east coast, midwest, and sun belt. Demographics just puts the PAC (or ANY western conference) at a disadvantage. Networks need later night inventory, but it frankly just isn’t worth as much with the east coast going to bed.

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ok, bookmark it and if you are so sure, don’t come back until the PAC no longer exists. Then you can collect your trophy, Nostradamus.

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The haters have it all wrong, so why listen. The Utes will be joining the NFL in 2025. I have this on good authority from a well placed (time traveling) source. See for yourself:

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Sigh. Ok, dude. I can’t post links but go to Dennis Dodd’s twitter or google his article from 2 hours ago on CBS sports.

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Dodd Summary - worst case scenario is the 4 corner schools go to the Big 12 (Utah Colorado, AZ and ASU) and Oregon and Washington go to B1G. Best case scenario they hash out a deal with the media and add SMU and SDSU to go back to 12.

Or put another way, our worst case scenario is BYU’s best case. Dodd also mentions that Oregon and Utah are the strongest football products left in the PAC. See what I posted earlier.

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All accurate, except Washington is apparently entertaining thoughts of Big12 as well. The one thing the Big12 really has going for it is a badass commissioner. I will keep trumpeting that it’s our best case scenario, especially if they end up cutting a separate streaming deal for basketball that we could benefit from. They’re just better positioned than the PAC, and we bring football prowess to the table that they would absolutely take. I have no interest in shackling myself to a sinking ship. We can act like we’re too good for the life raft, or we can wake up to the fact that it’s probably our savior (and means more money for us as well).

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You realize Dennis Dodd is not news, but an opinion and ‘what if’ piece, right? And starts:

A college landscape without the Pac-12 has become a storyline worth considering, though a break-up of the 107-year-old league isn’t particularly likely.

I’m sure UW softball team is going to love their 5+ hour flight to UCF. Their travel for ALL sports will be longer for EVERY trip except to Provo than they take now in the PAC. Thought Provo was on an island with closest trips to Kansas State and Texas Tech? Add another 800 miles for UW or UO. For ALL sports.

Sure, USC/UCLA has made their bed with this same situation - all their travel is further than any PAC trip (Nebraska will be the closest). USC is private. UCLA was chasing $ to make up for their deficit but doesn’t really want to go. It is going to suck for athletes and recruiting will start to take a hit. The schools are going to realize travel costs are eating up much of their bump in $.

Bookmark this - the PAC will be around at least into the 2030s. It might look different. It might make less money than other conferences and some schools might not be too happy about it. Likely $35M per school and not the $40M schools are looking for. Washington St. and Oregon St. aren’t going to be left out if UW/UO move - they’ll fight it at the state house. Cal and Stanford might just bail on FBS and keep other sports, but where? MWC? WCC? None of it makes enough sense for any of the schools that have a brain (I’m saying LA schools don’t). They’ll posture. They’ll complain. But none are desperate enough like G5 or independent schools to just jump.

There’s no value in jumping first. If (and I don’t think it will) things fall apart completely, the Big 12 would jump on grabbing at least the 4-corners. Utah would actually probe to see if B1G would accept an application as an AAU school (but UW/UO would probably get the look)

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This is the truth that is comforting. I just am dumbfounded that Ute fans don’t see the very risky situation Utah athletics are in. If they are not smart they could be back in the Mountain West. Anyone who thinks that is impossible is NOT PAYING ATTENTION

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Does shouting make you feel better? Are you 80 or 8?

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tinydocholiday = nevercoug

You can see the same writing style.

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DFNd1yVyRjmF2

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QAnon?

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What’s fun is when someone says “Utah is at risk” when actually with SC and UCLA leaving they become a top 3 program power-wise in the Pac-12. Making the Pac-12 stronger is in the best interest. Going to a Dr. Thunder Brand conference in the Central/Mtn time zone would be a step backward.

Losing a mid-range program like SC in a large market is bad but losing the two marquee programs of your conference in Oklahoma and Texas is a death nail. You went from the game of the week in Autin or Norman to game of the week in Provo or Waco… hard pass.

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If I wanted to read boring, insipid, predictions of impending doom for the PAC 12 I would wander over to the idiotic cesspool that is Cooterbored.

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Which is where this(ese) new troll(s) is(are) getting their talking points. Utah doomed. PAC doomed. Big 12 is the only savior. It’s the best and has a bad-a commissioner that all should worship.

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I did forget part of the expansion. So, I guess swamp ■■■ heat in September is where the game of the week will be
orlando-book-of-mormon

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Joined one day apart from each other. I don’t think we need a Junior CSI kit for this one. Case Closed.

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IP address check!

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The last few days have been like when a new kid comes to school, talks halfway normally for a short time, then starts in with crazy dire stuff… that results in the school principal making a call to the psychologist.

“Hmmmm… sounds like something is going on in the home”

For hardcore BYU fans who live and die with however the Cougars are doing, they should be ecstatic, they’re moving up, but the reality is far more complex and worrisome.

  • They so desperately want to somehow match and pass the Utes, but the reality of their potential to excel in the new league is dismal in numerous ways… and now it’s really starting to sink in, the closer it gets.

  • Even the scholar Dick Harmon is talking about the new western islands of the B12 and B1G facing serious amounts of travel, (Still not quite understanding exactly how jet lag works, he throws in the travel distance from Seattle to Tucson for comparison, unaware of the circadian rhythm aspect that makes eastbound travel - such as that the Cougs are facing - the worst part of the travel situation).

  • Latest BYU hero / B12 commissioner Yormark is talking about wanting all four time zones, compounding the anxiety, for thoughtful Y fans. Fresno appears to be a target, along with Boise, trapping the Cougs in their past. (BYU has a history of running away from situations that have gone sour, Fresno and Boise would keep the smell around, this time.)

  • BYU’s Basketball team’s ability to help lessen the impact has evaporated in spectacular fashion, with Pope sounding more and more like a Jr HS coach in explaining, praising players, basically everything. One big continuous cringe.

  • In the background of all this is Bill Walton talking about truck stops…an undeniable point.

I got a taste of all this at lunch this week with a group of colleagues, one of whom it turns out is a big time BYU fan, who could not stop talking about how the Utes are soooo screwed… but realizing he was at lunch with Ute fans quickly pivoted to the target of his rage really being the PAC-12, who spurned BYU in the 90s.

“Especially Stanford and Berkeley! I hope they have to get rid of sports! They’re religious bigots, just like Nauvoo and Governor Boggs!”

It was really quite the outburst, especially considering all the connections our work has with those schools… so we changed the subject to EVs, or something.

More broadly, I would expect this acting out to continue, probably go in a different direction when the PAC media deal finally happens. In the next few years the Utes to the PAC will be a recurrent theme, as they rack up head scratcher losses, and the difficulty of their situation contrasts with our reasonable amount of success. (This might be the worst part of their angst - we’re doing well in the conference that was really their rightful place.)

For now, any hint of issues with the PAC is cause for the army of neurotic Cougar fans to come out of the woodwork… the expanded playoffs as a major change to the CFB landscape not withstanding, of course.

And another thing! Her fancy Mercedes has a big scratch in it! She’s not who everyone thinks!!!”

Sheesh.

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