USC UCLA moving to the Big 10

[RICO CAT]

ESPN is reporting that USC and UCLA are planning on joining the Big 10 Conference as early as 2024.
The shake-up continues.

[Common Cat]

The road to the Mountain West continues…

[BleedingBLue]

NDSU will be getting a Mountain West invite in the next 6 months I'd bet.

[MSU01]

At this point I'm not sure how confident I am that the Mountain West Conference will exist in 5 years.

[wapiti]

Will Boise St get invited to the Pac 12 err Pac 10, Maybe Pac11?

[catgrad05]

Will Boise St get invited to the Pac 12 err Pac 10, Maybe Pac11?

I said in the College Athletic thread I’d say that’s a lock and possibly Fresno State to keep the California pipeline open?

[BleedingBLue]

Will Boise St get invited to the Pac 12 err Pac 10, Maybe Pac11?

I said in the College Athletic thread I’d say that’s a lock and possibly Fresno State to keep the California pipeline open?

Boise, Fresno, SDSU and SJSU will all get looks. I think Boise has their eye on the Big 12 though. The Pac 12 should have added BYU before the Big 12 could get em.

[Montanabob]

The road to the Mountain West continues…

I thought they were waiting for an invite to the BIG 10, 12, 16, or 24.

[CelticCat]

Pac-12's exclusivity based on academics is going to potentially bite them in the booty.

But and this is a huge but - the Pac12 might go after SDSU, CSU, or UNLV, and Boise State could do something entirely unexpected and all of the sudden there are 2-4 MWC spots open...

This is pure speculation but this all could happen pretty quickly if that plays out, we're talking an invite from the MWC within a matter of weeks. Ryan and I have speculated before that the reason Sprinkle stayed, and now we could add Costello into this conversation, is because someone somewhere knows MSU is headed up soon.

[RICO CAT]

Will Boise St get invited to the Pac 12 err Pac 10, Maybe Pac11?

I said in the College Athletic thread I’d say that’s a lock and possibly Fresno State to keep the California pipeline open?

Boise, Fresno, SDSU and SJSU will all get looks. I think Boise has their eye on the Big 12 though. The Pac 12 should have added BYU before the Big 12 could get em.

As I recall the PAC-12 at the time did not consider BYU because it’s a “religious” based institution. Instead, it chose to bring in Utah, even tough BYU was the more storied program amassing many wins and having a national championship in its pedigree. This so enraged BYU that they announced shortly thereafter that they too would be leaving the Mountain West to complete as an independent.

[CelticCat]

[Common Cat]

An invite from the PAC 12 is not out of the picture.

[Cat Grad]

An invite from the PAC 12 is not out of the picture.

Big 12. But the Board of Regents and one pseudo school in the state...

[Hawks86]

[damnyoutuesday]

If the Pac-12 decides to raid the Mountain West, I think we and Montana get the call (at this point we are a package deal. I don't think either school moves up without the other). A few things to consider:

*Boise State has horrible academics and athletics outside of football. I really don't think they're as attractive of a pick-up as many fans claim they are. Also Boise doesn't have enough market pull for them to be valuable to a P5 conference. If they move up, it would probably be to the Big 12, as the Pac-12 has high academic requirements (which may go out the window after this, who knows)

*Colorado State and San Diego State are probably the Mountain West's most likely candidates to get poached. Both have brand new stadiums, and are located in or near major TV markets (Denver and San Diego). San Diego's good in basketball and football, which helps their case. Colorado State could be better in both sports, but recent conference moves are about profit. The Pac-12 has also looked down on schools in the California State system because of Cal and UCLA (California has their systems set up differently than Montana, where they are basically different in name only), but that might have to change if USC and UCLA dip.

*Unless the Mountain West wants to poach FCS or significantly expand their footprint, they are ******. The recent round of expansions basically took every good looking FBS school off the table. Their options now would be UTEP, Texas State, or North Texas. Their FCS options are where things get interesting.

*I might be biased, but the Montana schools look like no-brainers if the Mountain West wants to poach FCS: successful athletic schools with decent-to-good academics with large fanbases. MSU would be the fourth smallest school, with UM either being second or third depending on where their enrollment is now (the two smallest MWC schools are Wyoming and Air Force). MSU would have the smallest permanent football stadium in the conference, and UM would have the third smallest (Utah State would be sandwiched between us).

*I'd say there are three other Big Sky schools that are viable options to make the jump to FBS if they want: Weber State, Sacramento State, and Northern Arizona. All have decent or better academics, with larger enrollment sizes. Weber and Sac have the better revenue sports, while Northern Arizona is better at non-revenue sports. I will not speculate any further without going down a deep rabbit hole.

*North Dakota State and South Dakota State could be option for the MWC too. Both of these schools seem enticing, but they are nowhere near the current conference's footprint. Both schools are like 900 miles from the University of Wyoming, which is the closest MWC school. The Montana schools moving up doesn't do them much good either.

*Just one thing to consider: bowl games vs playoffs. I don't know where everyone else stands, but I personally would get nothing out of ****** bowl game appearances. Getting rid of home playoff games would be a buzzkill. Unless we go on a seismic tear (which I realistically doubt), we will probably never get into a NY6 bowl either. The school as a whole would make more money, but I don't know how much our fans would love it. Just something to consider.

Just to clarify since some people are drinking the kool-aid: NEITHER OF THE MONTANA SCHOOLS GETTING INVITES TO THE PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2022. Nobody makes the jump from FCS to Power 5 conference instantly. As much as I would love for that to happen, we would end up going to the Mountain West. Best case is we hold our own up there, make some bowl games, make some more March Madness appearances, and hope for the best. Things working against us for Power 5 include market size (the entire state of Montana has just over 1 million people), stadium size, and athletic budget.

So USC and UCLA moving could be good for us, or it could end up being irrelevant for us. I don't know. But it will be fun to see what happens

Edit: if the Pac-12 dies, which is being reported by some, we most likely stay in FCS. We either move up or it's status quo

[NavyBlue]

NDSU will be getting a Mountain West invite in the next 6 months I'd bet.

I think the Cats and Griz get invited to the MWC before NDSU. I wonder if UM and MSU would accept if offered. I doubt it, but I hope I am wrong.

[Cat Grad]

Two super conferences and the rest will be NCAA members. One conference, the SEC will honor their ESPN contract and the other, the present BIG 10, will complete their negotiations with Fox.

[GoldstoneCat]

If the Pac-12 decides to raid the Mountain West, I think we and Montana get the call (at this point we are a package deal. I don't think either school moves up without the other). A few things to consider:

*Boise State has horrible academics and athletics outside of football. I really don't think they're as attractive of a pick-up as many fans claim they are. Also Boise doesn't have enough market pull for them to be valuable to a P5 conference. If they move up, it would probably be to the Big 12, as the Pac-12 has high academic requirements (which may go out the window after this, who knows)

*Colorado State and San Diego State are probably the Mountain West's most likely candidates to get poached. Both have brand new stadiums, and are located in or near major TV markets (Denver and San Diego). San Diego's good in basketball and football, which helps their case. Colorado State could be better in both sports, but recent conference moves are about profit. The Pac-12 has also looked down on schools in the California State system because of Cal and UCLA (California has their systems set up differently than Montana, where they are basically different in name only), but that might have to change if USC and UCLA dip.

*Unless the Mountain West wants to poach FCS or significantly expand their footprint, they are ******. The recent round of expansions basically took every good looking FBS school off the table. Their options now would be UTEP, Texas State, or North Texas. Their FCS options are where things get interesting.

*I might be biased, but the Montana schools look like no-brainers if the Mountain West wants to poach FCS: successful athletic schools with decent-to-good academics with large fanbases. MSU would be the fourth smallest school, with UM either being second or third depending on where their enrollment is now (the two smallest MWC schools are Wyoming and Air Force). MSU would have the smallest permanent football stadium in the conference, and UM would have the third smallest (Utah State would be sandwiched between us).

*I'd say there are three other Big Sky schools that are viable options to make the jump to FBS if they want: Weber State, Sacramento State, and Northern Arizona. All have decent or better academics, with larger enrollment sizes. Weber and Sac have the better revenue sports, while Northern Arizona is better at non-revenue sports. I will not speculate any further without going down a deep rabbit hole.

*North Dakota State and South Dakota State could be option for the MWC too. Both of these schools seem enticing, but they are nowhere near the current conference's footprint. Both schools are like 900 miles from the University of Wyoming, which is the closest MWC school. The Montana schools moving up doesn't do them much good either.

*Just one thing to consider: bowl games vs playoffs. I don't know where everyone else stands, but I personally would get nothing out of ****** bowl game appearances. Getting rid of home playoff games would be a buzzkill. Unless we go on a seismic tear (which I realistically doubt), we will probably never get into a NY6 bowl either. The school as a whole would make more money, but I don't know how much our fans would love it. Just something to consider.

Just to clarify since some people are drinking the kool-aid: NEITHER OF THE MONTANA SCHOOLS GETTING INVITES TO THE PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2022. Nobody makes the jump from FCS to Power 5 conference instantly. As much as I would love for that to happen, we would end up going to the Mountain West. Best case is we hold our own up there, make some bowl games, make some more March Madness appearances, and hope for the best. Things working against us for Power 5 include market size (the entire state of Montana has just over 1 million people), stadium size, and athletic budget.

So USC and UCLA moving could be good for us, or it could end up being irrelevant for us. I don't know. But it will be fun to see what happens

Edit: if the Pac-12 dies, which is being reported by some, we most likely stay in FCS. We either move up or it's status quo

Seems unlikely to me that both the pac and the mwc will survive this. I expect the big 12 to go hard after utah, co, Arizona schools to get to 16. Does the pac implode in that scenario? If no, they need to execute a huge raid of the mwc (6 to 8 or more). Would the Montana schools even be interested in moving to a MWC that did not include Fresno, bsu, co state, sj state, San diego st, perhaps even air force? So we're talking reno, usu, Wyoming types left. That's barely better than the top of the big sky or mvfc, if at all. Interesting times.
Edit to add: the fascinating scenario here is what happens if it's the mwc that implodes, FCS teams don't join right away, what happens to the bottom end of the MWC?

[BleedingBLue]

Rumor has it Washington and Oregon are next to the Big Ten. It's already been reported that the Big 12 is going to push hard for Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State. The Pac 12 being out of the picture would pave the way for the super conferences to actually expand the playoff as they wanted to before and say adios to the G5 and Pac 12. If the G5 was smart they would start getting together now and getting their own playoff system together and invite the best of the best FCS schools to join up into the new FBS.

[GoldstoneCat]

Rumor has it Washington and Oregon are next to the Big Ten. It's already been reported that the Big 12 is going to push hard for Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State. The Pac 12 being out of the picture would pave the way for the super conferences to actually expand the playoff as they wanted to before and say adios to the G5 and Pac 12. If the G5 was smart they would start getting together now and getting their own playoff system together and invite the best of the best FCS schools to join up into the new FBS.

This. I posited earlier that the pac might make a run at the mwc schools, but if they lose Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado, and the Arizona schools, if that bears out, they're almost on equal footing with the mwc. Not much left there but a good group of high end G5 schools. You'd have to think that Boise will try desperately to get out of the G5 if they can.