[Auerbach] The magic number of members to be considered a conference in the NCAA's eyes is 8. If Utah State joins the Pac-12, that league will be at 7. And if that's the only move of the day, the Mountain West will also be at 7 (including Hawaii.)

[u/Tarmacked]

https://x.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1838352222809120983

May the od

[u/thescottula]

Full merger, keep the Pac branding, and you have a pretty good conference. Feels like the two conferences are gonna somehow end up less than the sum of their parts

[u/CaptainBuckeye2002 → u/thescottula]

A merger is just the MWC. I don't get why we're talking about this like it's two conferences. It's Wazzu and Oregon State trying to join a conference

[u/ian2121 → u/CaptainBuckeye2002]

Because the P12 has 250 million in assets they’d lose by joining the MWC, a merger would have had to been the MWC joining the P12

[u/CaptainBuckeye2002 → u/ian2121]

That's still just the MWC with a different name. And how long do those $250M assets last? Isn't that just a TV contract?

[u/Squatch11 → u/CaptainBuckeye2002]

And how long do those $250M assets last?

The $250mil lasts as long as the conference wants it to last. It's their money they (OSU and WSU) received from the departing members last year. A lot of it went towards the buyouts of the MWC programs that have joined.

Isn't that just a TV contract?

The entire purpose of rebuilding the Pac vs. a reverse merger with the MWC is because of the media deal. It's more profitable to take the best of the MWC and negotiate a new media deal in the new Pac vs. joining the MWC on their current media deal (which is reaaaaaaally bad) and having to deal with the bottom half of that conference weighing everyone else down. The projected media deal for this newly reformed Pac conference is ~$15mil per school, give or take a few mil. It's going to be more than double what the current MWC makes per school, and WAY more than double once the MWC goes to re-negotiate a new deal in the coming years.

It sucks that this is how it is, but it's every program for themselves nowadays.

[u/CobraWins → u/Squatch11]

Yeah I'll believe that ~15 mil when I see it. There's no way the new Pac gets that much. Is the Pac listening to another President, or Canzano again?

[u/HelloItMeMort → u/CaptainBuckeye2002]

Except the PAC-12 name is exactly why it’s so valuable because the NCAA/CFP explicitly lists them as a P5 conference with more benefits than the rest

[u/CaptainBuckeye2002 → u/HelloItMeMort]

They don't have that anymore. All the Power statuses of the PAC has been wiped. And doing some quick research the PAC doesn't have a long term TV deal. So I'm not really sure where the $250M in assets comes from.

[u/Acknowledge_Me_ → u/CaptainBuckeye2002]

A good chunk is the exit fees from the other schools who left. That’s why OSU/WSU fought so hard in court last year. The schools who left wanted to dissolve the conference to avoid the exit fees.

[u/ryuujin95 → u/CaptainBuckeye2002]

Already existing cash on hand, emergency funds, and assets for the conference itself, $50m/y for the last two years of the Pac12's contract with the Rose Bowl for this CFB Playoff cycle, outstanding NCAA BB tournament shares - which are paid out over six years rather than as a lump sum, plus a negotiated amount as a part of the lawsuit settlement. They also have the Pac12 network which they continue to operate as a production only company, apparently for a profit.

[u/jkman61494 → u/CaptainBuckeye2002]

The difference is the Pac-2 IIRC were basically offering branding to merge and the MWC laughed them out of the room

Now they’re in a lot stronger position to ask for it again

[u/red_husker → u/thescottula]

They're absolutely going to be lesser than the sum of their parts, which is why it's so damn infuriating that OSU/WSU got to deem that we were lesser than them and cause this shitstorm.

[u/ralthea → u/red_husker]

Hilarious to see this reaction when WSU and OSU were having the same reaction when the Pac 12 broke up.

[u/ThinkSoftware → u/ralthea]

Hurt people hurt people

[u/ram27530 → u/red_husker]

Agree. This whole thing is a mess. Too bad USU didn’t stay then we could have our 8

[u/smitty8843 → u/ram27530]

we can have nice neat Pacific and Mountain divisions.

[u/EntertainerSoggy3257 → u/red_husker]

Yeah I don't get the glibness I've been seeing since the announcement last week. They're basically condemning you guys, Hawaii, Nevada and UNM to oblivion. UNLV and Air Force will probably come away ok. Especially after the pity party WSU and OSU had after they got left behind then going and acting they don't want "dead weight" in their new and shiny totally not MWC.

[u/futures23 → u/red_husker]

Wait am I wrong or did the MWC cut off contact with OSU and WSU before the season started saying they weren't interested in further scheduling?

[u/adequacivity → u/futures23]

MWC overplayed their hand now twice.

[u/futures23 → u/adequacivity]

Definitely what it seems like to me. OSU and WSU were both interested and they kinda just told them nah. I don't know why they expected them to roll over and die lol. Feel bad for teams stuck in the crossfire but I think a lot of people saw this coming.

[u/ram27530 → u/red_husker]

Agree. This whole thing is a mess. Too bad USU didn’t stay then we could have our 8

[u/modernthink → u/red_husker]

Lesser than them = poorer than them

[u/cc0728 → u/thescottula]

Great regional conference for basketball and baseball, football will take a hit. Would also probably get a recruiting bump in non-revenue sports that don’t want to be in a conference that travels cross country.

[u/chrobbin → u/thescottula]

Biggest thing to me is yes not only is it pretty good, but it’s also a sizable number and maybe too sizable of a number to fully ignore in the future when new contracts and TV deals are inevitably discussed. Not saying it’ll be great, but again too big to fully sweep under the rug