Pac12 settles w/10 exiting schools

[Cobra Mgr]

Looks like Oregon St & Wash St will divide $65M among themselves & have full control over the Pac 12's name & image.

[Amazin69]

So, how do we re-form the PCAA? Hawai'i, San Diego St., San Diego, Nevada, UNLV and Idaho? Everybody is on Pacific time except Idaho, which is only 8 miles from WSU, as we all (sadly) know by now.

That would rebuild the conference to 8, without damaging anyone else unduly. Or do we try to get Long Beach, Santa Barbara and Fullerton to resurrect their football programs and induct them, instead?

(Ideally, I would keep the conference to 6 or 8 members, give the straying ex-members the chance to get sick of going to Rutgers or wherever and come home. That's probably foolish romanticism, though.)

[thehef]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

So, how do we re-form the PCAA? Hawai'i, San Diego St., San Diego, Nevada, UNLV and Idaho? Everybody is on Pacific time except Idaho, which is only 8 miles from WSU, as we all (sadly) know by now.

That would rebuild the conference to 8, without damaging anyone else unduly. Or do we try to get Long Beach, Santa Barbara and Fullerton to resurrect their football programs and induct them, instead?

(Ideally, I would keep the conference to 6 or 8 members, give the straying ex-members the chance to get sick of going to Rutgers or wherever and come home. That's probably foolish romanticism, though.)

Hawaii, San Diego St., Nevada, UNLV are in the MWC, which is a pretty decent conference. For any team leaving it to join a new Pac Coast conference, it would probably be a slight step down. That said, if all four of these teams were to bolt the MWC, this would of course weaken the MWC overall and might make sense. But still, that would only make for a 6-team Pac Conference... San Diego is a member of the Pioneer Football League and Idaho is a member of the Big Sky Conference; both are FCS (a level lower than the top level, FBS). A jump up to a reconstituted Pac-[some number] would be a big leap, probably one that these teams would not be qualified from a competitive standpoint... So in order to establish a solid Pac-X conference, that 6-team group would need to look outside of the western region for add'l members - certainly not a novel concept these days.

Since the Pac-2 and the MWC already have an alliance in place for the 2024 season, an eventual merger of sorts would seem to make the most sense. Here's how I'd do it:

PACIFIC & MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE

Pacific Coast Division
Hawaii
San Jose State
Fresno State
Nevada
San Diego State
UNLV
Oregon State

Mountain West Division
Wyoming
Colorado State
Air Force
New Mexico
Utah State
Boise State
Washington State

This is the same divisional setup that the MWC currently has in place except it adds the two Pac-2 schools, one into each division in a manner that makes the most geographic sense (Corvallis, OR is 50 miles from the Pacific Ocean; Pullman, WA isn't really an ideal fit for either division, but could work in either one...).

Perhaps, rather than the proposed new conference name above - or any other new name - there would be some practical incentives - financial and/or historical prestige - to use the Pac-12's name & branding, maybe calling it the Pac-14. And then giving a nod to the outgoing MWC moniker by naming the divisions "Mountain" and "West."

I'd think a merger such as this would put the conference in good shape to perhaps benefit from possible near-future reshuffling of other conferences, with an eye on becoming the Western USA's version of a 16-, 18-, or even 20-team super conference.

[Amazin69]

I can honestly live without any new 14-team conferences for a good long time.

(I know, the Big 26 thinks I'm an old crank. Whatever.)

The whole point of a "conference" is to play each other, regularly. 10 should be the limit (9 conference games, 3 non). JMO.