All MWC schools must be invited to new PAC

It also says there's a sliding scale of penalties for only poaching some teams. And we might be willing to pay that.

I think it all comes down to how much of a warchest we really have in the remnants of the Pac-12. Ultimately it will come down to numbers and budget; if we can allocate $200mil to rebuilding the conference, and we can get the 6 "best" MWC teams for that, then it might be worth pulling the trigger.

More interesting to me is the quote from Barnes where he confirms that it's preferable to join an existing P4 conference, and rebuilding the PAC is their 2nd choice. Been lots of debate on here about what our priorities or preference are, and this seems to go against what many here have assumed we want to do.

In reality, I think everything is in a holding pattern until this FSU/ACC mess gets farther along in its implosion...

Totally agree. Paying millions of dollars that could be used for program(s) develop for exit fees is a total waste.

I think the older poster is right about waiting out the ACC/FSU drama. See where the chips lie then. But I would consider it a complete downgrade if we were paired up with Utah State/Colorado State/New Mexico. I really love the MWC, but at that point we might as well try to run with the NDSUs of the world.

I'm not trying to pick a fight.  I'm genuinely trying to understand your point of view, and I understand that moving from the old P5 PAC-12 to a merged PAC-2 / MWC doesn't just seem like a downgrade, it is a downgrade, but is there a particular reason you single out those three schools?  From a MWC insider's perspective, those three are very different, in multiple ways.

Colorado State is one of the most sought-after teams in the Mountain West.  San Diego State is first.  Boise, Colorado State, Fresno, and UNLV are generally second through fifth in some order, depending on what you focus on.  Colorado State is the best academic school in the Mountain West, and, hopefully, that still means something.

Air Force or New Mexico are probably the second-best academic universities in the Mountain West in some order.

I personally am a big fan of adding New Mexico, if the money works out.  I like Utah State, the State of Utah is gorgeous.  The Wasatch Mountains are visually stunning.  I like the area.  Still, unless Utah State can compete with BYU and Utah for eyeballs, I am not sure that the numbers work out.

All told, I would rather add all 10 Mountain West teams to make a 14+ team conference.  I just do not know that that is actually in the reformulated Pac-12's best interest.

We'll see.

I don't think Barnes needed lawyers to understand the consequences of the deal he made. He handcuffed us to the MWC and in return we got a schedule set up. At the same time Barnes seems to be saying getting handcuffed to the MWC permanently is our least desired option. Finding open dates for games with desirable opponents must be very difficult.