Colorado leaving the Pac-12 is not that big of a deal. Sure, it’s sad to see but let’s not pretend the Buffaloes were this long conference stalwart. They were in the Big 12 before and returning doesn’t seem all that weird. However, the optics of it are not great. It is obvious that someone needs to save the Pac-12 and, by extension, college football on the west coast as a whole.
Look, it would be easy to rail out against the greed and bad ideas that are destroying college football for fans everywhere. And I’ve been there and done that. Now is the time for solutions. Since Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff, in conjunction with the sport’s other power brokers in the world’s greatest time zone, seem unwilling or unable to fix this, allow me to help.
Here’s how you can save the Pac-12, the Mountain West and west coast college football. Thank me later.
Save the Pac-12
The first step to save the Pac-12 is signing a short-term TV deal that buys time to negotiate a better one in a few years. This idea that a great television contract will be flushed out by conference leadership is a pipe dream at this point. They have botched this and botched it badly. At this point, Kliavkoff and his buddies are trying to save face by not agreeing to anything.
Saving face is stupid. All it’s doing is hurting the Pac-12. Take your medicine, find a bridge deal and then start recalibrating so this doesn’t happen again in a few years.
The second step is to convince Pac-12 presidents that this idea of the conference being a collection of prestigious universities is dead. And it has been dead for a while now. Beggars can’t be choosers and it is time to lower the bar on what it takes to get into the club.
That’s important for step three which is expansion. Adding one or even three schools isn’t enough at this point. The Pac-12 needs to be at 14 teams, so five additions are required and fast. SMU is a no-brainer here, even with its religious affiliation.
San Diego State is another no-brainer. Why this hasn’t been done already shows just how incompetent Kliavkoff seems to be. Anyway, this still leaves the Pac-12 with three spots to fill and their best and probably only options can be found in the Mountain West.
Taking both UNLV and Nevada is a solid if unspectacular choice. Both have struggled recently but have also been good in different parts of their history. Adding one without the other doesn’t make a ton of sense, either as it will just lead to in-state wrangling. The other option is swapping Nevada for Fresno State but is that really an upgrade or worth the hassle of pissing off a portion of the Silver State?
As for the final spot, I really hate that I have to say this out loud. I hate that the Pac-12 has become desperate enough to make this a possibility. I just freaking hate it all. But, yeah, Boise State. They are good enough at a number of sports to make a difference, at least in the eyes of TV networks.
There is your 14-team Pac-12 that is just as good, if not better, than the new Big 12. The final step for the conference is marketing. Invest in the brand. Get into the national conversation and stop sitting around, hands in pockets thinking people will pay attention because you have games on TV.
More Pac-12: Pac 12 stadium rankings: A collection of beautiful college football venues
Save the Mountain West
With the Pac-12 poaching four schools, it is time to save the Mountain West Conference. There are a few options available, but the two obvious inclusions are New Mexico State and UTEP which slot in from a geographical perspective in addition to having a built-in rivalry. They may not be all that good in terms of performance but one step at a time.
Here is where things get interesting. If the Mountain West wanted to increase its presence in Texas and add FBS programs, it could explore Sam Houston State and also kick the tires on UTSA, Rice and North Texas in the American. Bringing in Louisiana Tech and/or Tulsa would also be interesting as it would reunite these schools with some of their old WAC rivals.
Should keeping a smaller geographical footprint be a priority, bringing up FCS schools Utah Tech and Southern Utah, two programs gearing up for an FBS transition, is an alternative.
Obviously, the strength of the Mountain West goes down no matter what path they choose, but there aren’t many other options on the table. Moreover, TV contracts value their late time slots on Friday and Saturday more than what teams are playing.
Related: Ranking Mountain West Conference football stadiums: the good, the bad and the meh
What’s the alternative for west coast college football?
The worst-case scenario is a total implosion of the Pac-12 with the Arizona schools and Utah moving to the Big 12 and Washington and Oregon heading to the Big 10. In this case, Stanford and Cal may try to go the independent route rather than be lumped in with the Mountain West which seems beneath them. UCLA and USC won’t let them join the Big 10 party.
It may also be possible for those two, along with Oregon State and Washington State, to partner up with some other Mountain West sides to form an ACC west division. That doesn’t seem like a great idea but, then again, college football stopped being reasonable years ago.
Perhaps the most significant issue for west coast college football is that it has been hamstrung by a lack of teams and conferences since the WAC dropped football at the end of 2012. There aren’t enough FBS games in the west each week. Opportunities are missed across the board because Big Sky teams and the Dakota schools like to be a big fish in a little pond that everyone ignores outside their bubble. Meaningless titles and one-off appearances on College Gameday are enough for them to be happy.
What’s the point of that existence, by the way? I know because I’ve experienced it. Even when Idaho was terrible in the FBS, at least we were part of the conversation. We were in the pool. Over the past five seasons, Vandal football has become nothing but an afterthought. And when we do get mentioned, it is as that school dumb enough to drop down. I would gladly trade six years of losing seasons for a random appearance in the Idaho Potato Bowl than years of consecutive FCS Playoff appearances.
Ultimately, now is the moment for everyone involved with college football on the west coast to start being proactive. Between bumbling Larry Scott being given free rein to ruin the sport here for years and George Kliavkoff’s inability to seemingly do anything apart from blithering positive platitudes, too much time has been wasted.
It doesn’t matter what school you root for or what conference your team plays in; having a robust college football presence on the west coast is good for everyone. Snuffing that out so a bunch of nameless, faceless paper pushers at TV networks and athletic departments can make even more money than the millions they make currently is just stupid.
Save the Pac-12. Save the Mountain West. Save west coast college football. Or don’t and let the sport descend into nothing but a miniature version of the NFL which Roger Goodell and friends will steamroll over anyway. The choice is yours.
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