Could The Pac-12, Mountain West Merge? Maybe
What is next for the two Western FBS leagues?
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It’s complicated
The Mountain West is in an interesting spot as the rest of the four Pac-12 teams in Cal, Stanford, Washington State, and Oregon State. There are a number of options we weighed out.
The simple and less messy solution is for all 16 to come together but how is the multi-million question?
The answer could be a merger per Mark Zeigler of The San Diego-Union Tribune. His sources are saying that the Mountain West could dissolve in name only to remove exit fees which would be $34 million per team to join a new league for the 2024 season.
This would allow for the Pac-12 to keep its NCAA Tournament credits, the bump in College Football Playoff money for being in an autonomous conference, and have a more valuable name.
Who knows if that status would stay, my gut says no with the new members.
With the Mountain West going away in name only, they too can transfer its NCAA Tournament credits to the new league. Those are quite a bit since San Diego State made its deep run to the national title game this past year.
This move has been discussed with the higher-ups this weekend, but one troubling wording that is used is “move most or all members” from the Mountain West to the Pac-12.
PODCAST: What Is Next For The Mountain West Now That Pac-12 Is Gone?
This should be an all-or-nothing deal. These four left-behind Pac-12 schools are in a tough spot and know what it is like to be left behind for dead. To do that to a few Mountain West schools would be beyond cruel.
Yes, there are some teams that haven’t played well in the money sport in football, but leaving behind struggling teams would be mean.
This new conference should keep everyone together and go forward. I guess it would be the Pac-12 despite 16 football and 15 basketball members. Maybe the league can get a boost and try to bring in Gonzaga to make this league a good one for college basketball.
No one should be picky at this point. The four Pac-12 teams can’t hold their nose up at playing or traveling to certain schools.
It would take nine out of the 12 Mountain West schools to vote for this move to avoid exit fees.
However, Zeigler reports that the founding members of the Mountain West are safe but the trio of San Jose State, Nevada, and Hawaii might be in trouble.
The Warriors have stadium issues as Aloha Stadium was unfit and it is taking a lot of time to get a new stadium. San Jose State football did recently win a conference title in 2020 and has been much more competitive but there have been years they have been just downright awful. Nevada is lacking resources and a commitment to football despite having a pretty good history.
Keeping everyone together seems like the smart choice.
TV contracts would be the next item to figure out with CBS and FOX and see if they would provide an increase through the life of the contract that runs through 2025-26.
Then there is the Pac-12 Networks, it might be best if they just go away but use the infrastructure for streaming games like the Mountain West does.
There is still a lot to go through and figure out. A merger will take time but principle talks about what is next should be going on right now because we are one year away from all of the changes in the recent realignment fiasco.
