Expansion Thread 2023

[swilsonsp4]

Jon Wilner is a bitter man. He has only two schools left to write about in his job as PAC mouthpiece. He still says that maybe the Beavers and Cougars could rebuild the PAC. I wouldn't put any hard-earned cash on that miniscule possibility.

In wake of Pac-12 collapse, Stanford and Cal appear set to join ACC | The Seattle Times

[swilsonsp4]

Here's a piece from the Wazzu perspective (247sports.com). I don't believe it's paywalled.

Where WSU stands with Stanford and Cal off to ACC (247sports.com)

[Lobot]

SMU making $0 for NINE years. WOW. Glad we didn't have to be that desperate

Yeah that’s insane on their part. I don’t care how much money the donors have. That’s going to get someone fired eventually.

[Lobot]

The AAC just released a statement saying they will not expand westward. The leaves Wazzu and the Beavers in the MW or independent.

[swilsonsp4]

Two thoughts:

1. Somehow, Wazzu & the Beavers are going to find a way to keep the PAC name, not because of power conference status, but because they're sitting on a pot of money that would evaporate in the absence of a PAC existence. Essentially, it would be a renamed MWC, probably including their current commish and media deal (possibly modified).

2. The Memphis Tigers have lost every round of realignment musical chairs. Suits me fine.

[Lobot]

2. The Memphis Tigers have lost every round of realignment musical chairs. Suits me fine.

If you don’t own your own facilities, you don’t get to play the game. See also USF.

[swilsonsp4]

I saw a proposed ACC scheduling arrangement for Olympic sports in that matches between Eastern schools and Cal/Stanford would take place in Dallas. That will cut down on travel costs and time usage.

[bearcatbret]

Olympic sports could schedule local/regional matchups and then only have a conference tournament once a season. If we were talking about track and field, they could have the conference meet where all teams attend and the rest of their competition is on a more regional basis.

On a side note, I wonder if the PAC 4 wishes that they had voted for the $20M deal that ESPN offered up during the initial bargaining period. Now, I wonder if the PAC 2 wished that they would have pushed the ESPN deal. I do not know if it would have kept the conference together but once they sent ESPN packing, they were never going to get a decent deal.

[bearcatbret]

Winners and losers - it is a good read. Conference realignment winners, losers: Stanford, Cal face travel headaches, SMU gets long-awaited promotion - CBSSports.com

[Barklee]

If you don’t own your own facilities, you don’t get to play the game. See also USF.

In May, the USF Board of Trustees approved $340M to build an on campus stadium for football and lacrosse. Its supposed to be ready for the 2026 season.

[Lobot]

In May, the USF Board of Trustees approved $340M to build an on campus stadium for football and lacrosse. Its supposed to be ready for the 2026 season.

I knew they had something in the works. Kinda late to the party though?

[Lobot]

Per Thamel Army is the AAC target . Army fans don’t want it

[Bearcats1232002]

I knew they had something in the works. Kinda late to the party though?

Yeah they shoulda tried harder to get up to speed. I think UCF will explode and do very well in the Big 12 and USF should have positioned themselves to be in the same spot. Even though I hate to admit it I could see UCF turning into a national power.

[Lobot]

Here's Thamel on Army

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/38312054/sources-aac-targets-army-join-conference-football

[swilsonsp4]

Here's a good piece regarding what Wazzu and OR State are facing:

Oregon State, Washington State destined to join Mountain West - The San Diego Union-Tribune (sandiegouniontribune.com)