OK brainiacs, now what?

[Cougsocal]

Hold on, I am on cup #1 and catching up.

Socal - what interview? The one I saw just said it was a bad deal for Memphis and they said no........?

Uber - that's pretty funny. I resemble your snide remark. I'm worn out by all this, think I'll just watch for a while.

Start at the 2:30 mark.

Everything Memphis AD Ed Scott said about decision to decline Pac-12 invitation

Memphis athletic director met with local media members Thursday to discuss the school's decision to reject an invitation to join the Pac-12.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

As a fan, Memphis and NOLA are 100x better road trips than Vegas.

Beale Street is legit fun not the manufactured neon of Vegas.

The Quarter should be experienced by every American at least once. And then bail over to Frenchman’s Street in NOLA. Mind blowing food town that is, arguably, better than anywhere in the world.

Agree.

Las Vegas has become an overpriced destination. Event weekend will find single hotel rooms starting at $500/ night. Getting around is either getting scammed by cab drivers or uber drivers, and good luck finding a meal for under $25/ person, and thats like a slice and a beer at NYNY. Fremont Street has decided to not miss out on bilking drunk travellers out of their money and is no longer the bargain it once was.

There are some properties south that I had the misfortune to visit, so I suppose if you like to smoke and gamble there are still values to be had "in" Vegas.

 

[Loyal Coug1]

Start at the 2:30 mark.

Everything Memphis AD Ed Scott said about decision to decline Pac-12 invitation

Memphis athletic director met with local media members Thursday to discuss the school's decision to reject an invitation to join the Pac-12.

sports.yahoo.com

Hey thanks. Geez I wish we had this guy. No BS, willing to give details, etc. Talking about travel costs, etc. etc. And you were right - it wasn't a "no", it was a no to our pathetic offer. I'll have to come back and watch the entirety of the clip.

Compare that to our leadership (Teresa and Anne). Absolutely nothing from them, we have no details on anything, certainly not monetarily. I don't have millions to give, but I'm not willing to part with even my meager potential contribution by throwing it into a dark closet. I'll stop there.

 

[Cougsocal]

If UNLV ends up staying with the Mtn West, it could be a silver lining. We could continue to hold our championships in Sin City, making it a neutral site game for both teams, and getting both fan bases to travel to what many consider a desirable destination. Keeping that option and adding schools that are arguably better then UNLV can end up being a win-win situation.

EDIT: BTW, why did you pick Oxford MS to retire to? Cost of living, family, witness protection program?

Small college town, trendy and vibrant, with an active night life, including multiple venues hosting live music nightly. Home prices less than half that of Socal, comparable to Pullman. Frankly, Oxford is everything you wish Pullman was as a college town, but isn't, a place people come to spend the weekend for its own sake, apart from SEC football. Visited college towns with an eye retiring to one, Oxford was the clear winner for me.

 

[dgibbons]

Hey thanks. Geez I wish we had this guy. No BS, willing to give details, etc. Talking about travel costs, etc. etc. And you were right - it wasn't a "no", it was a no to our pathetic offer. I'll have to come back and watch the entirety of the clip.

Compare that to our leadership (Teresa and Anne). Absolutely nothing from them, we have no details on anything, certainly not monetarily. I don't have millions to give, but I'm not willing to part with even my meager potential contribution by throwing it into a dark closet. I'll stop there.

Of course there is nothing from our leadership. Other than entertaining you, what would be the point? They're trying to build a conference and have increased the membership by 3.5x.

The Memphis guy is basically saying, "Hey everybody, we're willing to get paid more. You got my number, let me know."

 

[roses04]

Of course there is nothing from our leadership. Other than entertaining you, what would be the point? They're trying to build a conference and have increased the membership by 3.5x.

The Memphis guy is basically saying, "Hey everybody, we're willing to get paid more. You got my number, let me know."

At this point I don't think they need to hurry to add another team. Making decisions in a panic is never a good idea. The pac 12 needs to figure out the dollar number they can promise other schools before they go any further. You got 7, just need one more. First thing is how much do we actually owe the MWC, I thought it was silly suing them since we agreed to exit fees and poaching fees. However in speaking to a legal expert on this, he claims the Pac has a legitimate issue, which could reduce those poaching fees. Next you go to the networks, here are our 7 teams, what's it worth? if we add ? or ? Or ? what is it worth? They can get some pretty close dollar numbers with that. Once you're done counting money, you then you go to market with the money you have in your pocket, and offer teams, and what happens then only time will tell. If a team can net more money, after travel costs, by joining Pac-7 they will, if they can't they won't. I'd like to think, with all the consultants they hired they were given some numbers that will be reliable down the road, or this whole exercise in keeping the Pac 12 as a league was a waste of time.

 

[dgibbons]

At this point I don't think they need to hurry to add another team. Making decisions in a panic is never a good idea. The pac 12 needs to figure out the dollar number they can promise other schools before they go any further. You got 7, just need one more. First thing is how much do we actually owe the MWC, I thought it was silly suing them since we agreed to exit fees and poaching fees. However in speaking to a legal expert on this, he claims the Pac has a legitimate issue, which could reduce those poaching fees. Next you go to the networks, here are our 7 teams, what's it worth? if we add ? or ? Or ? what is it worth? They can get some pretty close dollar numbers with that. Once you're done counting money, you then you go to market with the money you have in your pocket, and offer teams, and what happens then only time will tell. If a team can net more money, after travel costs, by joining Pac-7 they will, if they can't they won't. I'd like to think, with all the consultants they hired they were given some numbers that will be reliable down the road, or this whole exercise in keeping the Pac 12 as a league was a waste of time.

That part should already be done. I don't see CSU, SDSU, BSU, FSU and USU joining without that.

 

[95coug]

At this point I don't think they need to hurry to add another team. Making decisions in a panic is never a good idea. The pac 12 needs to figure out the dollar number they can promise other schools before they go any further. You got 7, just need one more. First thing is how much do we actually owe the MWC, I thought it was silly suing them since we agreed to exit fees and poaching fees. However in speaking to a legal expert on this, he claims the Pac has a legitimate issue, which could reduce those poaching fees. Next you go to the networks, here are our 7 teams, what's it worth? if we add ? or ? Or ? what is it worth? They can get some pretty close dollar numbers with that. Once you're done counting money, you then you go to market with the money you have in your pocket, and offer teams, and what happens then only time will tell. If a team can net more money, after travel costs, by joining Pac-7 they will, if they can't they won't. I'd like to think, with all the consultants they hired they were given some numbers that will be reliable down the road, or this whole exercise in keeping the Pac 12 as a league was a waste of time.

I agree 100%, and said something similar in another thread. Let the lawsuit play out a bit, figure out if we've got another $50M to play with, see what's going to happen with other conferences, etc. If we've got that extra cash, we can money-whip Memphis or UNLV or someone out of their current "commitment" to their conference. Any commitments they've made today will get real soft real quick if the finances favor them moving.

That part should already be done. I don't see CSU, SDSU, BSU, FSU and USU joining without that.

Probably, yes. At least a soft number that showed that with those schools the Pac-12 value > MWC value. But the final conference member will have some impact on turning that soft number into a real number. It's also apparent that whatever that soft number was, it wasn't high enough to justify the AAC exit fees for Memphis, and it was overcome by a one-time $20M payment to UNLV.

If we win the lawsuit and the poaching fees go away, we gain more flexibility to sweeten the pot and change the calculus for the 8th team.



Pulling in Hawaii as an 8th football member probably does little to nothing for the conference media value, and reduces the per-school share. Pulling in Gonzaga as a basketball member may create some value, but hard to say how much. And, I'm not sure pulling either one (or both) actually puts us over the top in members.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Here is what I think is currently most credible:

We took the top 4 MWC and did not offer UNLV initially because we could not trust the UNLV board to keep it quiet. The 4 we took really, really wanted out of the MWC.

Once there was visibility, Utah State wanted in and has a reasonable program. Done.

MWC desperately wanted to keep AFA and UNLV, and offered them a pile of money to do so. If they finalize that deal, AFA and UNLV will get some money and be locked in forever at the coming MWC level. Unlikely to ever get to the playoffs. And the MWC has shot their wad; no other significant resources to prevent another MWC team from leaving.

PAC clearly will be the best non-P4 conference, regardless of who ends up being #8. The PAC champion is almost certain to be in the playoffs, unless/until the rules change. The best you can do is play by the current rules. I think this is one of the most (if not the most) key points. Realistically, we now have a better chance at getting in the playoffs than UW! Boise and OSU can say the same. It will not be a problem getting an 8th team who feels the same way. It remains to be seen who that is, but I'd suggest that it really does not matter unless it is a big home run. And the home run teams have all managed to extort something out of their home conferences to get them to stay.

Our commish has handled the situation quite well. Getting the first 4 without leaks or warnings was just flat out a brilliant performance. I would have said it was impossible.

One last comment, only peripherally related: Given the recruiting realities, I see our recruiting future being 25 every year, with HS kids from SoCal & Sacto (2/3 of the class), HS kids from WA & WA adjacent (1/6) and transfers (1/6). We need to get 5 recruiters into SoCal plus 1 centered in Sacto but able to go toward the Bay if an opportunity presents itself.