Gonzaga's Move to Pac-12: Strategic Shift or Misstep?

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00:00Mike, of course, he joins us every week from the Sporting News.

00:06You can catch him on Coast to Coast, also on Fox Sports and Big Ten Network during the

00:11basketball season.

00:12He's everywhere.

00:13Mike, good to see you.

00:14I have to do the Gonzaga story with you.

00:18You wrote an article about that, frankly, they shouldn't leave.

00:24Am I wrong for the Pac-12?

00:26Meanwhile, today they joined the Pac-12 officially and they're going to take their talents, their

00:33basketball prowess to the Pac-12, the newly created Pac-12.

00:38Why don't we go back to where you were at the point of thinking that that was a bad

00:45idea for them?

00:47Well, it comes from the simple reality, Scott, is that they have built for themselves a perfect

00:56formula.

00:57Now, I realize that part of that perfect formula is head coach Mark Few and his presence on

01:03the bench.

01:04And he is 61 years old, so he won't coach there forever.

01:09And at some point, there is going to be an adjustment in that part and hopefully not

01:15for a while.

01:16But at some point, there's going to be an adjustment in that part of the equation.

01:20And one can say, well, this is setting themselves up for the future beyond Mark Few, which I

01:26find to be rather counterintuitive, honestly, Mark, because if they're going to be worse,

01:34if we presume they're going to be worse without Mark Few, then why would it be better to be

01:39in a conference where they would be less competitive?

01:43That doesn't make any sense.

01:44If they're going to be as good or better, which are options that exist, then why would

01:51you mess with a formula that has produced one of the three tied for the three longest

01:59sweet 16 streaks in the modern history of the NCAA tournament and two national championship

02:05game appearances and five number one seats since 2013?

02:10I don't think there's a better formula out there for Gonzaga.

02:14I certainly don't think that it involves playing with these Pac-12 schools, because what it

02:19comes down to, Scott, is this simple reality.

02:23These games will be more difficult for them than the games they have played in the West

02:29Coast Conference.

02:30But on the whole, not without exception, but on the whole, the games will be no more rewarding.

02:38It's not going to help you if in a typical Washington State year, it's not going to help

02:44you all that much more to beat Washington State than it does to beat Santa Clara or

02:51Loyola Marymount.

02:52It's just not going to help that much.

02:54It's not going to move the needle for the selection committee in terms of bringing you

02:58into the tournament or seeding you prominently.

03:01So these teams that are going into this new conference, you know, some of them, you know,

03:10I think have gotten certainly better at basketball, San Diego State being one of them.

03:15You know, you'll have Boise State, Oregon State, you said Washington State.

03:20And I don't disagree playing Pacific and Portland and San Francisco and Loyola Marymount and

03:27St. Mary's.

03:28I mean, St. Mary's was their main rival, right?

03:31At the end of the day, that was the team that gave them the most problems in the WCC or

03:36whatever it was, the West Coast Conference all these years.

03:40That was their problem was St. Mary's.

03:42But they always ended up beating St. Mary's and they always ended up winning that conference

03:47and they always ended up winning the conference tournament.

03:50For the most part, there are very few exceptions, as you said.

03:53Right.

03:54Like they clean house.

03:56So I wouldn't disagree with you that it's almost a risky move to go try something completely

04:04different than what the formula you're talking about that they had mastered.

04:09Yeah, the counter to that is that they believe they will get more money.

04:15Now, that's not guaranteed because we don't know and no one knows what the Pac-12 television

04:21deal will be worth.

04:22They can make representations and say, we expect it to be this, but until it's this,

04:27we don't know what that will be.

04:29And I do believe that there's a lot of programs that have changed conferences over the years,

04:37Scott.

04:38When they had other options, including fighting to make their previous homes, their homes

04:43at the time, more relevant and more lucrative.

04:47And they wound up with bigger checks and less success and fun.

04:51I mean, how much fun is Boston College have?

04:54How much have they had in general over the last 20 years?

04:59Where's the fun?

05:00They almost never sniffed the NCAA tournament in men's basketball.

05:03They played in no prominent ball games in the out of the ACC and they get a bigger check.

05:10Is that better?

05:11I still wonder about that.

05:15I keep hearing from Texas A&M fans.

05:16They tell me every time that going to the SEC was the smart move for them.

05:20They don't win there.

05:22What they ended up doing is writing a $75 million check to get rid of a guy who was

05:26a pretty, pretty good college football coach, Jimbo Fisher, whether he was the right coach

05:32for A&M and the SEC.

05:34That's for them to decide.

05:35But he was a pretty good coach.

05:36They paid him $75 million to not coach.

05:39Yeah.

05:40How about that's a great point.

05:42And really, at the end of the day, in my opinion, the only time they ever mattered was when

05:47Johnny Mansell was there.

05:49They haven't mattered since.

05:52But you had an interesting part of the article talking about some of the schools that have

05:57done it, like Davidson, Butler.

05:59The one that stood out to me was Butler because they've done it from the horizon to where

06:04they are now.

06:06And did you think it paid off for those schools, like going up in weight?

06:12I don't think.

06:13I mean, it paid off in terms of financially.

06:16I'm sure they're making more money.

06:18I don't have any doubt about that.

06:20But Davidson, which was facing the likelihood that Bob McKillop, the great Bob McKillop,

06:26would retire relatively soon after they changed leagues from the Southern Conference, where

06:33they were the, they weren't, they didn't get every single bid every single year out of

06:38the Southern Conference in the way that the Zags do in the WCC.

06:42But they got a lot of them.

06:43And since they moved to the Atlantic 10, it's been leaner.

06:47They have had some success, but it's been leaner.

06:49And now Bob has retired and his son, Matt, has taken over and is trying to build the

06:54program back.

06:55And it's a, it's a tougher slog in the, in the A-10.

06:58It's the, A-10 is the best one bid league in college basketball.

07:01I'm not sure I want to be in the best one bid league in college basketball.

07:05I want to be in the lesser one because if I, if I'm great, I'm going to get that one

07:09bid.

07:10If I'm in the A-10 and I'm great, there are three or four other teams that could beat

07:13me and take that bid.

07:15So I don't know that it's been terrific for them.

07:18For Butler, we have seen a relative decline in their performance since they, since they

07:24joined the Big East.

07:25They had some success early on.

07:27And after Chris Holtman left, they've had, they've had some struggle to get back there.

07:32They haven't been back since COVID.

07:35They've been there four times.

07:37But when they were back in the day, they went to the NCAA tournament 11 times.

07:43Yeah, I think it does make a difference.

07:45And I liked Butler basketball the way it was.

07:48I thought they had a beautiful formula to watch the players that they were able to get

07:53into and then mix in some Horizon League players, but really good ones.

07:58And to be able to get to the championship game in 2010 and 2011, to be able to earn

08:03fairly prominent seeds, a number five in one season.

08:08I think that, that, that was, it was a great program.

08:12I don't have a problem with them as a Big East program, but I thought that as a Horizon

08:16League program, there was something extraordinary there.

08:19Right.

08:20When Krzyzewski retired, he was what, 75?

08:24How long do you think Mark Few will coach at 61?

08:28Hasn't he already named his replacement?

08:30Like he did one of those Jim Boeheim moves.

08:33Well that didn't stop Jim Boeheim from coaching until he was nearly 120.

08:37Which is all the more ridiculous.

08:40It was the dumbest thing I'd ever seen.

08:42He named his successor 25 years before he left.

08:46Yes.

08:47I don't know what Mark wants.

08:50There have been people who speculated that it was imminent, relatively imminent, I guess

08:54I should say.

08:56But you never know until you get to that point.

08:58And Mark's still only 61.

08:59So even if he coached another five years, he gets to 66, that's a fairly long time.

09:04So I think we'll still see Mark in the game for a while.

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