Conference Realignment Chaos: PAC 12, Mountain West Updates

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00:00So, Mike, the conferences are changing again.

00:07Are you buying that Gonzaga's going?

00:09Are you buying the Utah State stories?

00:13Some people are refuting it.

00:15Some people say it's legit.

00:17Where do you think all these teams end up when it's all said and done?

00:20Well, there's also a lawsuit that was filed today by the Pac-12 against the penalty fees

00:29that would be due the Mountain West for taking certain members of their league.

00:34So it really has become wild in the last week.

00:38What's interesting to me is that there's this level of interest, even though we're talking

00:43about what the Zombie Pac-12 and the Mountain West and the American Conference, leagues

00:49that don't usually get that much attention.

00:51So maybe a little bit of expansion talk is good for them because it puts their product

00:57in the spotlight some.

00:58I'm not sure where the Pac-12 ends up at this point.

01:02I didn't like their strategy at all for what they did.

01:06I thought that, honestly, what the Pac-12 and Mountain West should have done was cooperate.

01:12Put together a league that added Oregon State and Washington State to the existing Mountain

01:20West and then just decide which is a better brand.

01:24Mountain West is a pretty cool name.

01:26Pac-12 is a really powerful name that's been around for a long time.

01:30Decide which is a better brand and go from there.

01:32Instead, they decided to fight each other.

01:35And I don't think that the strategy of the reanimated Pac-12 has been good.

01:40They did not have a good handle on their attempt to raid the American Conference.

01:44And look, first of all, if you go after Tulane, Scott, I mean, you do not know what you're

01:49doing.

01:50You don't want to get Tulane.

01:52Tulane's a wonderful university.

01:55New Orleans is a cool city.

01:57But you don't want that athletic program.

01:59Even though the football program has gotten better competitively on the field, it's still

02:03not a prime program.

02:06Its history is so up and so down.

02:10It's not one that's been consistent.

02:13The addition of Tulane to the Big East back in 2013, I believe it was, was what precipitated

02:21the basketball school saying, the heck with this.

02:23We're out of here.

02:25We're going somewhere else and doing our own thing.

02:28So I didn't like the fact that the Pac-12 did that.

02:30And then to get rejected by Tulane, Memphis, and USF shows they really didn't have a good

02:36plan.

02:37They should have been all in on Vegas, which offers so much in terms of the possibility

02:43of what the Rebels could become, what they have been many times in basketball.

02:47And hey, Scott, the worst case scenario, if you add Vegas, what is it?

02:52The worst case scenario is your team goes on the road, gets a W, and all your fans get

02:56to go to Vegas.

02:57How, how do you not want them in your league?

03:00Are they staying in the Mountain West?

03:02That's their plan.

03:03And do you think that, I talked about this earlier yesterday about St. Mary's.

03:09Why are they being left out?

03:11Because they're pretty good at hoops too.

03:13Well, it comes down to the fact that in a case of St. Mary's, they have a magnificent

03:19basketball program, but not one that, one that is believed to have endurance.

03:26And it doesn't have great national appeal.

03:30It has, it has had great success nationally.

03:34But it's not like a lot of people are turning on the television when St. Mary's is there

03:38unless they're playing Gonzaga, which is a brand that draws people to the television

03:42set and is why there is some interest in the Pac-12 in adding them as a basketball member.

03:48I'm not sure where Vegas goes because they were pretty much firm on staying in the Mountain

03:54West when they, when they weren't initially invited by the Pac-12.

03:58And then the idea that Utah State might cross the line there and go to the Pac-12 sort of

04:03destabilized Vegas's interest in remaining in the Mountain West.

04:07So we don't know where it's going to end up at this point.

04:10As you said, even Utah State's interest in the Pac-12 now seems to be dubious.

04:17I just think that the Pac-12 strategy here was really poor.

04:21And why should we be surprised now?

04:23Because whoever's been in charge, the Pac-12 in the last 15 years has made very few good

04:30moves from hiring Larry Scott, to letting him run things as he did, to then when he

04:35was, when he departed, to then asking for a King's ransom for their television rights

04:40and seeing a reasonable contract go to the Big 12 instead that could have been, belonged

04:45to the Pac-12.

04:46They haven't, when's the last time they made a good move?

04:49When they decided they wanted UCLA maybe?

04:51Was that the last time?

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