ColoradoEagle

If half the current Pac leaves, you’re left with Cal, Stanford, Washington State, and Oregon State. Enough to pull in some MWC schools, but that’s about it. Media contract for that group probably wouldn’t be much higher than the AAC. Definitely not enough to justify the higher travel costs. Also it would cease to be a P5 conference at that point.

MWC, sure. For the AAC, I doubt ESPN just sits around and lets its inventory get raided by a competitor. Also I’m sure there’ll be a clause in whatever media deal the Pac does get that triggers renegotiation if certain members or a certain percentage of the conference leaves, and it won’t be $22m per school.

Taking off my fan hat for a moment, I don't think SMU is valueless. I believe that y'all bring big value to the AAC for the reasons you mentioned. At the risk of losing my fancard, I'm glad that we're in a conference with you. However, as far as the Pac goes, it doesn't seem like SMU adds enough value to bring in a school that's 800 miles from the nearest member school. I think that's borne out in the current media negotiations, but obviously nobody knows what's final until the documents are signed. You could be right, we'll see.

Then why are you here? Even the Dan Wetzel tweet points to an article with no mention of SMU. When SMU does pop up in these articles, it either goes back to the original speculation months ago, or it's in reference to Fresno and Boise not even being under consideration. I haven't read anything lately that produces even half as much smoke as the SDSU discussions/letter. Not saying that SMU to the Pac can't happen, but all signs currently point to nothing is happening. Even the DMN conveyed this a couple days ago: https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/smu-mustangs/2023/06/17/what-could-san-diego-states-unofficial-mountain-west-conference-resignation-mean-for-smu/ Also, common sense says that if SDSU and to a lesser degree, SMU, were such a value add, they would've been invited already. It's been months. More than likely at this point, the Pac 12 sticks with who they have. Maybe they add SDSU. To a lesser degree, maybe they add another school to even it out to 12, but really there's no reason to do that. Especially with a school so far outside the footprint that doesn't add enough value to move the needle on the media contracts. The best that can be said is adding SDSU provides recent basketball success, which wouldn't be a bad thing with UCLA on the way out. Adding SMU brings...?

Just SDSU. I haven’t seen SMU discussed in quite a while. Seems like that may be dead in the water.

I believe so. Latest I’ve read is that ESPN has taken themselves out of contention for main media partner, but would be open to picking up some late night tier 1 rights. Main seems to be down to Apple and Amazon.

Rumor going around that the Pac 12 contract is only going to come in somewhere around $22-23m per school. Seems like things will get messy fast, if true.

MWC is set to be above only the MAC in football in the coming years. They had a horrendous year last year, arguably worse than both the Sun Belt and CUSA. We went toe to toe with a team that steamrolled that entire conference (8-0). They were nowhere near the AAC. Their only hope to stay competitive is not losing some combination of SDSU, Fresno, and Boise to the PAC12/Big 12. They were looked on favorably by the committee for March Madness, but given that SDSU was the only one of the four schools to make it out of the first round, I doubt that happens again next year. Finally, their payout per school is almost half of what the AAC receives. There's just absolutely no reason to entertain the thought of a MWC move. They were so conservative this last go around of conference realignment that they've set themselves up to become the next CUSA, not the next P6.

At the current rate, there may not be much of a MWC to associate with. MWC's future depends entirely on what happens with the PAC's media contract. A MWC without SDSU, Fresno, CSU, and AFA is pretty rough. Only Boise would really be worth scheduling.

Far more likely to see CSU and AFA join the AAC than any AAC schools going to the MWC.

Sounds like the time I read up on Mean Green Athletics on ponyfans.com.

There's really no argument for adding another mouth to feed, a dying sport at that, just because of our location. Any extra money right now needs to go to already existing sports, preferably football and basketball.

No one cares about having a convention in Denton, and this is the first time I've ever heard of the city wanting to work on anything pertaining to UNT athletics. The hardest of passes.

Class act.

Given that a press conference wasn’t announced today, my guess would be mid to late next week for that. Announcement probably as soon as Monday or Tuesday.

Very thankful for what he did for us. He took us to a height that those of us in the Pit Crew only dreamed about 15 years ago. I do wish he at least gave us the weekend, but it is what it is. I look forward to the day when we’re considered a top job. Seems closer today than it did a couple years ago.

Rumored that the Big Ten wants Oregon and Washington. Also Stanford and Cal, but the money has to make sense for those two.

Nah. Existing AAC schools get $7 million per school each year with the 2023 additions getting about $3.5 million per school. All MWC schools except Boise get about $4 million per year. There’s zero incentive for any existing AAC schools to go to the MWC. If the PAC 12 really does become just OSU and WSU, they’ll absolutely make every effort to join the AAC. At minimum for football only with the rest of their sports in the WCC.

Exactly. Just really depends on who’s left. If only WSU and OSU are left when the music stops, then I could easily see the conference dissolving and those two schools joining the AAC along with 4-6 of the MWC schools. A staggered exit where Oregon, Washington, Stanford, and Cal don’t immediately exit for the Big Ten is probably the only real hope for a Pac12/MWC merger.

Either the remaining PAC schools will raid the MWC, or they’ll join the AAC. MWC isn’t raiding anything.

She’s in the unenviable position of being where the Sun Belt was years ago after losing schools to CUSA. Or most likely will be in the next few months. Maybe she turns it around, but I’d expect more of what happened with the WAC than with the SBC.

Doubt we’ll need to wait much longer than 24 hours.

Tell me your conference is dying without telling me your conference is dying.

If you have T-Mobile or Metro, load up T-Mobile Tuesdays and claim the season pass for 2023. All games (no blackouts) are on Apple TV+ for the next 10 years. Not sure if this replaces the free MLB.tv promo they've done forever.