Meanwhile, another OL commit

Love it. This class is going to be competitive as hell on the line.

Maybe  this guy will turn out to be an all American but his offers are from Fresno,  western oregon, sac state, Nevada, San Jose state, and Portland state. If we drop to mwc be ready for a lower echelon recruit.

We are lower echelon in the P5. Our recruiting would probably be about the same as now, but, be at the top of say the MWC.

Take the 2023... say 247 rankings. OSU's average recruit is rated about 86.43. And overall 10th in the Pac12 even with Stanford, ASU, and Colorado with new coaches. And they and Zona all having far worse seasons. OSU is never going to out recruit the top 30-40 programs, and OSU is typically surrounded in the rankings by also rans in the other P5 conferences... Northwestern, Rutgers, Illini, Maryland, Pitt, Vandy, Wake, Duke.

The MWC recruits are in the 81 to 84 range, as are most of the good G5 teams....and it has far less to do with the ranking and far more with the fit/development after they get on campus. Including the recruits, OSU will continue to benefit from the portal. There are kids who just do what kids do... make decisions based on ego, glitz, glamour, etc. OSU will continue to pick up quality kids... both initial recruits and in transfers.

Oregon State has already proven that it develops players better than many programs as our recruiting is well down the P5 list, but our play on the field is not. So, even a small dip in the recruiting "rankings"... and some of that will simply be that you are a member of a G5 conference... OSU will still excel at development, especially vs other G5 staffs.

IF... the MWC is a reality there is no reason to not expect 7-2, 8-1, 9-0 regular seasons with 1 cream puff NC game mixed with a mid tier and top tier P5 game. It seems that 9+ wins each season is very doable, with the opportunity for major bowls far more often than was possible as a Pac12 member. Until the CFP situation is cleared up, there is also every reason to see OSU in the top 12 every so often.

Some here want to speculate on the unknown as the glass half empty... or worse. I see this "obstacle/challenge" as a gift not a hinderance. Some see it as a chance to fail and diminish the university. I see it as a chance to adapt, learn, GROW. For those that crave OSU football to be on the national stage and maybe consistently, the MWC merger is the path. It is tough for me to read the negativity here when all one has to do is look back on the last decade plus of what BSU has accomplished. They were in the national conversations more than OSU football has been in total. 

I'm glad to see we disagree on something, rgeorge. On a different thread we were agreeing too much for me.

I'm not really sure, not being an eternal optimist, that I could ever view the current situation as a "gift", unless of course it led to the dawn of a new college football league that eviscerated most of the money elements. But since that's not going to happen...

Many people point to BSU and say "see what they've done!" as an indicator that success on a national stage is possible. Yet, I fear they forget two things. One is that the impotent-men big colleges are going to start hyper-accelerating their coaching salaries to keep up. We've got good coaches, no doubt, but they're going to want to move up in the food chain and get national exposure if they want to continue in their career. Secondly, BSU made much of their national success before the CFB playoffs and before transfer portal and NIL reared their head. Will we keep some of the stalwarts who play their arse off and produce? Sure. But I think, although I have no proof, that the chances of players leaving us after a good season are going to increase.

From the beginning of CFB playoffs in 2014, until 2022, BSU went 12-2, 9-4, 10-3, 11-3, 10-3, 12-2, 5-2 (Covid),  7-5, 10-4. Some really good 2 loss years in there. Out of all of those years do you know what the highest CFB ranking they received was? 19th. 19, one 20, and two 25's. From 2020-2022, they haven't ended being ranked in the CFB. In their 12-2 year, they went to the Las Vegas Bowl, and last year they went to the Frisco Bowl. I didn't even know there was a Frisco Bowl.

Now we do have better facilities than many G5 I'm sure. We currently have better players, etc. But let's not kid ourselves if we drop to the MWC and say that we're going to overcome "the system" put in place to suddenly become a major player or even a mid-player on the national stage. (Although maybe a merger of MWC and AAC will provide enough national media exposure to affect that). I am more than happy to be proved wrong.

OSU and WSU are looking to use the Pac 12 brand to reap the benefits of sharing 43M in assets and roughly 60M of hoops credits. The Pac still doesn't have at TV contract and if th MWC dissolves their TV contract ends.

Hopefully Apple would step up at that point, but that's certainly not maximizing exposure, and quite frankly, the "PAC" label, at least initially, won't be viewed positively.

It's the best move obviously just because the remaining funds can bouy OSU/WSU a few years. And who knows, perhaps 3 or 4 years from now there will be more expansion to the west by the P4. Pac will most certainly be voted out by other 4 majors unless ESPN/Fox steps up on their behalf because they feel the need for more west coast exposure.

Nothing is static. Except for cling.