I'm a business guy, and I understand the initial panic expressed by the remaining P12 programs about getting left behind in the B10 / SEC arms race. What I don't understand, and maybe this is where things are trending now that people have had time to think, is why the remaining P12 schools feel the need to make a knee jerk decision on conference affiliation.
OK, so we're going to fall way behind the B10 and SEC schools. Well, with very few exceptions (USC, UCLA, Oregon, UW), the West coast programs were always going to be behind the B10 and SEC schools in terms of football. Are the states of Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Colorado ever going to be remotely close to Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, etc.? Trying to keep up with them seems akin to trying to match your wealthy neighbor who keeps buying luxury cars every year. On top of that, there's the other reality as it relates to network TV. The East, Midwest, Southwest, and Southeast markets don't give a rip about West coast sports, and they never will. Never, as in never. I'm an East coast transplant who has lived here for 35 years now, and to this day, none of my East coast friends and family (and they're all diehard sports fanatics) know a damn thing about WSU or the Seattle sports teams.
My point is, regardless of the recent defections, what's wrong with simply assembling the best West coast athletic conference you can and negotiate the media rights accordingly? Yea, we won't make as much money and we'll fall behind the superpowers. OK, but again, that was always going to happen. So we form a league comprised of Stanford, Cal, UW, WSU, Oregon, Oregon State, Fresno State, SDSU, Boise State, Utah, Colorado, and the Arizona schools. Maybe even add UNLV and Nevada. Maybe merge with the WCC in a basketball and baseball agreement? You battle it out to determine who the best in the West is, and have a playoff with another league in a similar situation. The ACC and Big12. Let the B10 and SEC become the defacto minor league professional league and sell YOUR product to the network(s) not covering them.
I'm not just lecturing WSU here. If I'm our new commissioner, this is the argument I'd be selling the entire conference on. Keeping up in college football with the SEC and B10 is a losing proposition, so why not veer in a different direction. Build a really good West coast brand of collegiate athletics and sell it accordingly. When the expansion dust settles, there are going to be A LOT of decent programs left out of the super conferences. Form an affiliation with those schools and have it model a traditional STUDENT athlete concept.
That's what I'd sell.
OK, so we're going to fall way behind the B10 and SEC schools. Well, with very few exceptions (USC, UCLA, Oregon, UW), the West coast programs were always going to be behind the B10 and SEC schools in terms of football. Are the states of Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Colorado ever going to be remotely close to Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, etc.? Trying to keep up with them seems akin to trying to match your wealthy neighbor who keeps buying luxury cars every year. On top of that, there's the other reality as it relates to network TV. The East, Midwest, Southwest, and Southeast markets don't give a rip about West coast sports, and they never will. Never, as in never. I'm an East coast transplant who has lived here for 35 years now, and to this day, none of my East coast friends and family (and they're all diehard sports fanatics) know a damn thing about WSU or the Seattle sports teams.
My point is, regardless of the recent defections, what's wrong with simply assembling the best West coast athletic conference you can and negotiate the media rights accordingly? Yea, we won't make as much money and we'll fall behind the superpowers. OK, but again, that was always going to happen. So we form a league comprised of Stanford, Cal, UW, WSU, Oregon, Oregon State, Fresno State, SDSU, Boise State, Utah, Colorado, and the Arizona schools. Maybe even add UNLV and Nevada. Maybe merge with the WCC in a basketball and baseball agreement? You battle it out to determine who the best in the West is, and have a playoff with another league in a similar situation. The ACC and Big12. Let the B10 and SEC become the defacto minor league professional league and sell YOUR product to the network(s) not covering them.
I'm not just lecturing WSU here. If I'm our new commissioner, this is the argument I'd be selling the entire conference on. Keeping up in college football with the SEC and B10 is a losing proposition, so why not veer in a different direction. Build a really good West coast brand of collegiate athletics and sell it accordingly. When the expansion dust settles, there are going to be A LOT of decent programs left out of the super conferences. Form an affiliation with those schools and have it model a traditional STUDENT athlete concept.
That's what I'd sell.