Wilner: Pac-12’s next expansion options — Gonzaga? — after UNLV rejection

Are candidate schools at the "Prove I'll make more money stage?" It would seem so. 

I am all for building the best conference on the one hand, but I am also all for building it with teams that want to be here. I am not about begging Memphis to join. I kinda, sorta, want them to f%#* right off. I think we can be just fine with a Texas State and North Texas pairing which I don't think we need to beg for. I totally get a Memphis Tulane pair is probably stronger... but a Texas pair is closer and in a better football state. 

I'd rather not us blow our money on a short term rental either. Everybody and their dog knows Memphis is gone the millisecond there is the slight hint of a chance to be somewhere out east. I just don't think the juice is worth the squeeze here.

But I also know a lot of media value comes from being in multiple time zones. We aren't really. We are in two. We don't have eastern games and that, unfortunately, is a negative in valuation. 

I think the CW is pretty interested in picking us up. They really want to grow their football presence and I think they have to be excited about the consolidation of the better programs here in the Pac, and honestly OSU's and WSU's ability to keep pulling Oregon and UW (not to bring up THAT debacle again...) 

Evaluation is not negotiation but we took every team out of the MWC that gave them value. OSU was reportedly worth $15M+ as an independent, Gonzaga carries some value beyond their tourney credits. All this talk to me that the new Pac is just going to be equivalent to the MWC is just pure insanity to me. It is big conference propaganda... clickbait journalist s%#t. Conference media values are not equally distributed. When the MWC before was getting $5M a team or whatever, it was because Boise, Fresno, SDSU were all worth more like $10M, and SJSU, New Mexico, Nevada were all worth like $3M. and the overall value per team came out to that $5ish. We took the best off the top to make a far more interesting conference that far more people are going to watch. any claim that the new Pac is just going to be the same as the new MWC is pure flat stupid town. 

Texas State's last 2 games on ESPN have averaged a viewership of $1.9M eyeballs.

Take it for what it's worth - WSU homer, but objective enough in his other posts not to say Pac-12 is the greatest or even in the top 3 bball leagues. Seems realistic.

Right over your head. You missed it. Don’t let emotion overcome your comprehension and humor component!

That's not difficult. Look at other options we have. SJSU vs Nevada looking good.

Strike 2.

This is fun!