Las Vegas Bowl....Finally!

[CougPatrol]

Just read that beginning in 2020, the Las Vegas Bowl will feature the P12 vs. another Power 5 conference opponent, likely the SEC.

It's taken way too long, but it seems they've finally stopped hiding behind the false PC "shame" about Vegas and capitalized on the golden egg they're sitting on.

 

[moxeecoug]

That’s great news. Nothing wrong with playing a MWC team such BSU or SDSU but I would much rather have a P-5 opponent. Much more meaningful.

 

[Cougatron]

Excellent. I think cougs / other pac 12 alum have always wanted that one

Would be great if it sec too which would be a perfect money maker also in that new NFL stadium.

That would be a really badass bowl game.

 

[Loyal Coug]

Just read that beginning in 2020, the Las Vegas Bowl will feature the P12 vs. another Power 5 conference opponent, likely the SEC.

It's taken way too long, but it seems they've finally stopped hiding behind the false PC "shame" about Vegas and capitalized on the golden egg they're sitting on.

Excellent. I think cougs / other pac 12 alum have always wanted that one

Would be great if it sec too which would be a perfect money maker also in that new NFL stadium.

That would be a really badass bowl game.

I was going to say, I think the new stadium has a lot more to do with this decision than any shame. like 100x more. Good deal for the Pac-12.

 

[CougPatrol]

With the Raiders new, glitzy stadium, that Bowl game has the potential to be a huge draw. Some potentially epic games between powers who don't normally face each other.

USC vs. Alabama
Stanford vs. LSU
UW vs. Georgia
WSU vs. Vanderbilt

 

[cr8zyncalif]

This will be a game I'd happily attend.

 

[CougInSpain]

This is indeed, great news! Take my money now please!

 

[702coug]

This is great. The new stadium is ridiculous and right near the strip.

 

[COUGinNCW]

Would be a great place for the Pac12 title game every year as well.

 

[YakiCoug]

Excellent. I think cougs / other pac 12 alum have always wanted that one

Would be great if it sec too which would be a perfect money maker also in that new NFL stadium.

That would be a really badass bowl game.

Even these two wouldn't snipe and gripe about this...

 

[ScottHood]

I'm sure the opening of the new FB stadium in 2020 prompted bowl organizers tro look for more high profile opponents, and no conference is more high profile nationally than the SEC. Don't be surprised if you see the Pac-12 champ. game there eventually and an early season Top 25 matchup like Jerry's World in Texas and Atlanta have right now.

 

[ElComanche]

Las Vegas will build a super basketball arena soon as they move to capture the huge money of NCAA athletics. The Las Vegas Football Bowl will become huge and if a SEC -PAC 12 match up emerges.look for a larger TV contract for the PAC 12 .. If i was the PAC 12,i would invite SDSU and UNLV to the conference to expand the geographic.economic and political footprint of the PAC 12.

 

[froropmkr72]

I'm sure the opening of the new FB stadium in 2020 prompted bowl organizers tro look for more high profile opponents, and no conference is more high profile nationally than the SEC. Don't be surprised if you see the Pac-12 champ. game there eventually and an early season Top 25 matchup like Jerry's World in Texas and Atlanta have right now.

Wasn't even aware of the 1.8 BILLION stadium.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Stadium then the next minute...it climbed to 2 billion. Wow...it should be spectacular.....PLACE YOUR BETS!

http://fortune.com/2017/09/18/las-vegas-raiders-stadium/

 

[Loyal Coug]

Las Vegas will build a super basketball arena soon as they move to capture the huge money of NCAA athletics. The Las Vegas Football Bowl will become huge and if a SEC -PAC 12 match up emerges.look for a larger TV contract for the PAC 12 .. If i was the PAC 12,i would invite SDSU and UNLV to the conference to expand the geographic.economic and political footprint of the PAC 12.

Uh, no. Neither comes close to meeting the academic and research qualifications to be in the Pac-12. It's wayyyy more than football.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...the_United_States#Universities_classified_as_"R1:_Doctoral_Universities_–_Highest_Research_Activity"

 

[chipdouglas]

SEC vs P12 would be huge. SEC fans would come to Vegas because Vegas is a fun novelty for them, and P12 would come because it's close - and everybody else would come because it would usually be a good matchup.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Las Vegas will build a super basketball arena soon as they move to capture the huge money of NCAA athletics. The Las Vegas Football Bowl will become huge and if a SEC -PAC 12 match up emerges.look for a larger TV contract for the PAC 12 .. If i was the PAC 12,i would invite SDSU and UNLV to the conference to expand the geographic.economic and political footprint of the PAC 12.

Hell will freeze over before the conference invites those two. The only way that the Pac-12 expands is if the Big 12 falls apart and they can get some of those teams. BYU isn't likely to get invited, and there aren't any other teams in the western US that are compelling.

 

[ElComanche]

I think that you guys are thinking "old time " thoughts. The cost of athletics is astronomical and to compete they need to expand. The academic, flag football, and club sports has been gone a long time ago It is not school rivalries and souvenirs but big money which we all aware is driving college football The conference s national star has been diminished and they need to ratchet up their game ,so to speak. I agree, "its way more than football".The PAC 12 either has to continue to get lesser TV contracts.less money and athletic prestige,or bite the bullet and openly admit it is money as the end game.

 

[dgibbons]

Las Vegas will build a super basketball arena soon as they move to capture the huge money of NCAA athletics. The Las Vegas Football Bowl will become huge and if a SEC -PAC 12 match up emerges.look for a larger TV contract for the PAC 12 .. If i was the PAC 12,i would invite SDSU and UNLV to the conference to expand the geographic.economic and political footprint of the PAC 12.

I may be wrong but I think the T-Mobile Arena is a basketball facility too.

Those schools don’t bring anything to the table to consider them for expansion. It’s about eyeballs for TV revenue. San Diego and Vegas are already within the PAC-12 footprint. Bringing them in just makes each of the existing schools’ piece of the pie smaller.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

I think that you guys are thinking "old time " thoughts. The cost of athletics is astronomical and to compete they need to expand. The academic, flag football, and club sports has been gone a long time ago It is not school rivalries and souvenirs but big money which we all aware is driving college football The conference s national star has been diminished and they need to ratchet up their game ,so to speak. I agree, "its way more than football".The PAC 12 either has to continue to get lesser TV contracts.less money and athletic prestige,or bite the bullet and openly admit it is money as the end game.

I agree that expansion is likely, but the Pac-12 knows that it needs to expand intelligently. What does SDSU bring to the table? No offense to the Aztecs, but they ain't got that many fans and the Pac-12 already has a deep immersion in the San Diego market because of all of the conference alumni that live there. UNLV? The university is a joke overall and their football program would need a decade to improve before they could even think about being competitive. A nice stadium is no reason to be in a conference. If the Pac-12 is going to expand, it's because they are getting teams that bring value to the conference, both competitively and financially. If KU was willing and able to abandon KSU, and Oklahoma was willing and able to dump OSU, getting the Kansas City and Oklahoma City markets into our conference makes sense. Get TCU from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and Texas (if they would get off their Longhorn Network high horse) and you've got a 16 team conference with some financial punch. KU sucks in football, but their basketball credibility, AAU membership and overall picture might be enough to make it worth holding your nose about the football team as they try to rebuild. I don't really want to see that conference, but it could happen.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Flat, you make some good points.

The separation of TAMU & Texas into different leagues is the hard reality that others will probably cite as an example if, for example, KU and OU decide to bolt.

I don't see Texas coming to the PAC. They see themselves (rightly or wrongly) as another Notre Dame, willing and able to go as an independent. You would have to swim too far and too hard upstream to make Texas & the PAC work. That said, there are other possibilities.

TT is essentially a free agent with TAMU's departure. They can do what ever makes sense for them. If OU and OSU go together, the state government would probably be willing to write some big checks to make it happen. The same is probably true for KU and KSU. Of course, your logic of just picking up OU and KU because you only need one from each state in order to tap the media market is true, and that may make one from each state make sense. You mention TCU. There are pro's and con's, but I don't see the PAC ever picking up a conservative religious campus as a member. However, you could tap the Texas market with TT, and that strikes me as being pretty realistic. If the goal is just TV/media markets, KU, OU and TT would deliver 3 states. Any expansion would not be 15 teams; there would need to be one more. Lots of possibilities...again, if you are just trying to expand the media footprint and want a state school, ISU is worth considering. That would bring in the entire old Big 8 footprint and make for 4 logical schools to group together. The same could work if you subbed in OSU and/or KSU for OU and/or KU. Sure, there is a higher national profile with KU and OU, but if the goal was simply media markets, either will do.

I don't see the PAC expanding without at least a fig leaf toward academics. None of the schools mentioned above are bad, but some are definitely better than others from a research funding and academic profile standpoint. And I can't see a 14 team league being realistic; you would almost have to go to 16. If that happened, I see CO, UT, and the Arizonas joining the midwest group.

I'm not sure that expansion is inevitable, but if it happens, I suspect that it will generally resemble what I've noted above.