The Mountain West has established itself as school 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 Event. 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 most effective mid-major league in school basketball. It was additionally the most effective late-night hoops to eat, even topping the Pac-12 in watchability.
And now, it’s similar to all of the others, thrown into chaos by soccer and greed.
The one excellent news from a basketball perspective is that at the very least the brand new Six Pac is sensible (for now) relating 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 court docket and supply the brand new Pac-12 a chance to model itself as greater than a School Soccer Playoff striver.
San Diego State, Colorado State and Boise State had been all top-tier Mountain West basketball applications, and their capacity to constantly make the NCAA Event may enhance if the Pac-12 chooses to make extra strikes with hoops in thoughts. Luring Gonzaga from the West Coast Convention particularly would cement the league as a top-six basketball convention. Large 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 useful 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 positive (for now)?
The Pac-12 should get to at the very least 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 computerized bids into the 12-team School Soccer Playoff. To construct an eight-game convention schedule that matches its FBS counterparts, it will must get to at the very least 9 members. In basketball, 10 groups is the best quantity for round-robin scheduling, particularly when you can keep away from a nasty backside tier — that’s why the Large 12 carried out so effectively in computer-based metrics for thus a few years. Ridding themselves of the groups from the Mountain West’s basement may assist the long run resumes of the Aztecs, Rams and Broncos. Two video games in opposition to Gonzaga yearly additionally definitely wouldn’t harm.
The Pac-12 ought to be as choosy as attainable wherein G5 faculties it goes after. (Our Chris Vannini broke down the potential choices.) Let’s say the league’s best-case situation is including two G5 faculties with current soccer success — for instance, prying Memphis and Tulane from the American. From there, it will 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 it is going to be to discover a host of soccer faculties who will bounce. Amongst these attainable choices:
- Saint Mary’s: The Gaels, Gonzaga’s major 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 beneath Bryce Drew. And if Gonzaga leaves, the WCC is just not 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 can be one other hit to an AAC basketball model already on the decline after dropping Houston and Cincinnati. Wichita State would doubtless bounce on the likelihood 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 Event bids yearly. The present Mountain West has been the seventh-best league in school basketball the final two years, placing 4 groups within the area in 2023 earlier than final yr’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 attainable 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 accomplice Nevada could possibly be tough.) 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 essentially the most sensible options to rebuild school basketball’s product round historic rivalries and geography really feel like fantasy for hoops followers.
The game does nonetheless have at the very least just a little pull relating to tv negotiations. The Large 12 and Large East have accomplished effectively 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 Large 12’s present rights settlement runs out on the finish of the last decade. The Large 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 Large 12 reside on a monetary tier beneath the Large Ten and SEC in soccer, they nonetheless get pleasure from considerably equal standing in hoops. The Large East is true there, too. This new Pac-12 received’t be capable of run with the 4 huge leagues in soccer, however add a top-10 basketball program in Gonzaga and also you may earn that coveted high-major tag or at the very least get nearer than the previous Mountain West did.
Gonzaga has accomplished simply positive for itself dominating the WCC, but it surely likes cash, too. The temptation so as to add a couple of additional million yearly in NCAA Event 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 status on the hardwood alongside the best way. In the meantime within the Mountain West, it’s now a query of survival.
(Photograph: James Snook / USA At the moment)
