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Plan B: What are the Pac-10 expansion options now that Texas is staying put?

by on Jun. 16, 2010, under Sports

The Pac-10 got its heart broken.

The western conference made a play for the prettiest girl in town. There was a lot of flirting and she seemed really interested but at the end of the day she went back to her old boyfriend (who just lost his job and was accused of cheating on her).

The Texas Longhorns are staying in the Big 12 and the remaining ten schools have re-pledged their allegiance. The Pac-10 will put on its tough-guy face and say it never really cared about Texas and was just using her anyway.

After the he said/she said stuff dies down the Pac-10 will move on. Here’s a look at what could be next:

Stay at 11
Even though it was hoped the Colorado move would bring about the demise of the Big 12, the Buffaloes are here to stay. Is the Pac-11 a viable option?

The Big Ten turned it up to 11 when it added Penn State in 1990 and what did it get them? Two decades of unbalanced schedules where who you didn’t play was more important than who you played. It’s not surprising that the conference just added Nebraska with plans to split into divisions and play a football championship game.

Go to 12
When it comes to sports even numbers are better than odd so logic says the Pac-11 needs another team. The Big 12 Minus 2 just shot you down. The Big Ten Plus Two is growing instead of shrinking. The SEC, ACC and Big East are too far away. That leaves teams from the Mountain West and WAC.

The best WAC football program just joined the MWC. Two of the top three football teams in the Mountain West are religious schools that don’t appeal the Pac-10 powers that be.

The University of Utah was rumored to be the choice at the beginning of the year and it is now the only name being mentioned.

Go beyond 12
The Pac-10 could add Utah and decide not to stop there, but the remaining schools in this half of the country don’t bring a lot of athletic clout. UNLV? San Diego State? The only point of having a super conference is to combine super teams and that dream died when Texas stayed home.

No option is going to look as good (or as lucrative) as adding the Longhorns and half the Big 12. To add insult to the rejection is the fact that the shrunken Big 12 now has the potential for the perfect college sports structure.

A nine-game round-robin football schedule with no need for a championships game. An 18-game home-and-home basketball schedule. Sound familiar?

I was in favor of taking a shot at the Texan riches. But it’s too bad the Pac-10 no longer has the option of remaining a ten-team league. Now that the symmetry is gone for good the best plan is to add Utah and be done with it.

For now. Stopping at 12 gives you the chance to keep your eye on what happens in the Lone Star State over the next few years.

You never know who will get their heart broken next.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 12:07 AM and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • http://none JimBodkins

    The PAC is a research conference. The reason BYU isnt elegible is they arent a research institution.
     
    Which is what I was ranting about in another post. Put Bob’s non-research college in the PAC and heads will roll.
     
    I may be wrong and I appologize if I am – but I dont think UNLV is a research institution and would not be considered.

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  • John

    Hawaii is a top tier research school. It makes sense to add them since every Pac-ten school recruiter is always out there to woo the talent.

  • Bret

    It would have made the most sence for the Pac 10 to have added Utah and BYU from the start.  That would have followed their pattern of having two teams in each area and this would also minimized the travel time for the athletes. 

    Who cares if a school is a reasearch school or not.  We are talking about an authletics conference here, not a research conference. 

  • http://tucsoncitizen.com/uasportsnet/2010/06/16/plan-b-what-are-the-pac-10-expansion-options-now-that-texas-is-staying-put/ Joshua

    Hawai’i is a great option, They get the PAC closer to Far East Asia and would give them an untapped market major conference wise. As far as Texas goes I have a radical suggestion and that is TCU they’re in the Mountain West and could easily be persuaded to join the big boys.

  • http://none JimBodkins

    No, it is a research conference that allows athletics.
     
    As I mentioned in a post elsewhere, UCLA has a revenues-liabilities of over 4 billion dollars a year. The UofA basketball program has about 11 million dollars in revenue.
     
    Athletics is nothing. Even Wooden – except for image and branding – did very little compared to the doctors, engineers, professionals of all descriptions and … wait for it … research from UCLA. (I’m just using UCLA as an example)
     
    The UofA has about 1.5 billion dollars in revenues – liabilities per year. Athletics is off the chart in comparison.
     
    I like athletics, but Scott is limited by the requirements of the member institutions. They arent going to allow non-research institutions – stud athletic programs or not. BYU is a good university with terrific athletics. But they are not a research institution. This is a requirement of the member institutions of the PAC not me. Its their standard.
     
    Your example might have worked with Utah and Utah State.
     
    P.S.
    Texas etc are terrific research institutions. More so than athletics.
     
     

  • Sunshinesuperman67

    UofA is a research institution alright. They have an ongoing sociological research project to study how a graduate of the UofA can make a living and raise a family in an intractable $12@hr town.  The right to work state is truly the right to starve state. So the carpenter who builds a home here, cannot afford to buy a home……OR support the Wildcats!
    And the economic chasm is widening leaving little time and leisure money to support college athletics. The caste system that rules and regulates Tucson is the very reason that Sports at all levels languishes.

  • http://none JimBodkins

    You should check your facts. Its NOT Tucson. Tucson is the only deep blue spot in an otherwise red state. Always has been.
     
    Mo Udall – Rep from the Tucson area (dont believe the conservative ads – he was progressive). The chair of the U.S. House of Representatives  progressive caucus is from the Tucson area. Tucson sued the state over SB1070. The Tucson Unified School Disctrict will not remove its ethnic studies programs. The UofA in contravention of the state will continue same sex insurance benefits. Pima county will for the 9th year spend money to place watering stations in the desert to keep border crossers alive. The county sheriff (Dupnik) wont enforce SB1070 … and more.
     
    Did you know that during the Reagan/Bush I wars in central america that churches in Tucson ran underground railroads moving refugees from central america to safety in safe houses in the US?
     
    I agree in general – but it doesnt come from Tucson. It comes from Phoenix and elsewhere in the state. And I might add that it isnt just Arizona. Its conservatism in general that brings things like right to work states and immigration laws that result in racial profiling and economic class systems … and that is everywhere.
     
    Dont mean to make this political – and I wont continue. This is a blog about athletics.
     

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