The Mountain West has established itself as faculty basketball’s preeminent mid-major convention in the previous few years. San Diego State made the nationwide title sport in 2023. The league put six groups within the 2024 NCAA Match. Whereas convention realignment wreaked havoc round it, the Mountain West’s stability put it on a tier by itself, surpassing the American and the Atlantic 10 as the very best mid-major league in faculty basketball. It was additionally the very best late-night hoops to devour, even topping the Pac-12 in watchability.
And now, it’s identical to all of the others, thrown into chaos by soccer and greed.
The one excellent news from a basketball perspective is that not less than the brand new Six Pac is smart (for now) in relation to geography, with San Diego State, Colorado State, Boise State and Fresno State becoming a member of Oregon State and Washington State as the 2 Pac-12 holdovers make strikes to resurrect their model.
To steal a time period from hoops, this league is mid-major-ish in soccer, however its 4 new arrivals from the Mountain West may justify this transfer on the basketball courtroom and supply the brand new Pac-12 a possibility to model itself as greater than a Faculty Soccer Playoff striver.
San Diego State, Colorado State and Boise State have been all top-tier Mountain West basketball packages, and their means to persistently make the NCAA Match may enhance if the Pac-12 chooses to make further strikes with hoops in thoughts. Luring Gonzaga from the West Coast Convention specifically would cement the league as a top-six basketball convention. Huge 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has flirted with Gonzaga over the previous two years and hasn’t but been in a position to persuade sufficient of his members that it’s helpful so as to add a basketball-only member. However the Pac-12 wants numbers and model recognition.
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As convention realignment rolls on, is ACC susceptible or simply effective (for now)?
The Pac-12 should get to not less than eight football-playing faculties by 2026 to be acknowledged as an NCAA and Soccer Bowl Subdivision convention and to be eligible for its champion to earn one of many 5 automated bids into the 12-team Faculty Soccer Playoff. To construct an eight-game convention schedule that matches its FBS counterparts, it might have to get to not less than 9 members. In basketball, 10 groups is the perfect quantity for round-robin scheduling, particularly when you can keep away from a foul backside tier — that’s why the Huge 12 carried out so nicely in computer-based metrics for thus a few years. Ridding themselves of the groups from the Mountain West’s basement may assist the longer term resumes of the Aztecs, Rams and Broncos. Two video games towards Gonzaga yearly additionally definitely wouldn’t damage.
The Pac-12 needs to be as choosy as potential by which G5 faculties it goes after. (Our Chris Vannini broke down the potential choices.) Let’s say the league’s best-case state of affairs is including two G5 faculties with current soccer success — for instance, prying Memphis and Tulane from the American. From there, it might make sense to chase one different basketball-only member and additional lean into its basketball branding. It could possibly be simpler to draw these faculties than will probably be to discover a host of soccer faculties who will leap. Amongst these potential choices:
- Saint Mary’s: The Gaels, Gonzaga’s main WCC rival, have made 10 of the final 19 NCAA Tournaments.
- Grand Canyon: The Antelopes are set to affix the WCC in 2025, have sturdy monetary backing in hoops, play in top-of-the-line environments within the nation and have made three of the final 4 NCAA Tournaments underneath Bryce Drew. And if Gonzaga leaves, the WCC just isn’t as engaging of a touchdown spot for Grand Canyon. Including the Antelopes would additionally return a foothold within the Phoenix market to the Pac-12 after the lack of Arizona and Arizona State.
- Wichita State: The departure of Memphis could be one other hit to an AAC basketball model already on the decline after shedding Houston and Cincinnati. Wichita State would possible leap on the probability to be in the identical league as Gonzaga; the Shockers fancied themselves because the Gonzaga of the Midwest not way back.
A Pac-12 with Gonzaga plus some mixture of these different provides would earn a number of NCAA Match bids yearly. The present Mountain West has been the seventh-best league in faculty basketball the final two years, placing 4 groups within the subject in 2023 earlier than final 12 months’s surge to 6.
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Which faculties may the brand new Pac-12 goal? UNLV, Wyoming, Tulane, Memphis amongst many
As for what stays of the Mountain West, the convention must retain eight members to maintain its FBS standing intact, and it’s potential among the remaining faculties will nonetheless bolt. (UNLV looks as if a really perfect goal for the Pac-12, though separating itself from college system associate Nevada could possibly be difficult.) Including New Mexico State would make sense for the Mountain West as a result of the Aggies are already rivals of New Mexico and within the area. In fact, logic and comfort have hardly ever mattered within the realignment circus, and even probably the most sensible options to rebuild faculty basketball’s product round historic rivalries and geography really feel like fantasy for hoops followers.
The game does nonetheless have not less than somewhat pull in relation to tv negotiations. The Huge 12 and Huge East have accomplished nicely for themselves by constructing stronger basketball leagues — Yormark has publicly touted the potential of promoting his league’s soccer and basketball rights as separate tv offers when the Huge 12’s present rights settlement runs out on the finish of the last decade. The Huge East signed a brand new deal this summer season with Fox, NBC and TNT that may run from 2025-26 by 2030-31.
And whereas the ACC and Huge 12 reside on a monetary tier beneath the Huge Ten and SEC in soccer, they nonetheless take pleasure in considerably equal standing in hoops. The Huge East is correct there, too. This new Pac-12 received’t have the ability to run with the 4 large leagues in soccer, however add a top-10 basketball program in Gonzaga and also you would possibly earn that coveted high-major tag or not less than get nearer than the outdated Mountain West did.
Gonzaga has accomplished simply effective for itself dominating the WCC, nevertheless it likes cash, too. The temptation so as to add a number of additional million yearly in NCAA Match items has made Gonzaga’s eventual exit from the WCC really feel inevitable. After raiding one of many nation’s most attention-grabbing basketball conferences and setting off one other spherical of realignment dominoes, the Pac-12 has an opportunity to spice up its personal popularity on the hardwood alongside the way in which. In the meantime within the Mountain West, it’s now a query of survival.
(Picture: James Snook / USA At this time)