Mountain west payouts

I think that the plan was to get four AAC teams to get to 10 and call it.

That did not work out exactly like it was supposed to.

So, the next plan was to add Utah State and UNLV to get to eight and then evaluate next steps.

That did not work out exactly like it was supposed to.

I think that there is a plan to get to 14 with AAC teams, but it may not work out.

I think that there is a plan to add UNLV and that's it or Air Force and UNLV to get to nine.

I think that an idea out there is still for the Pac-12 to get to 10 all from the Mountain West (your guess on who gets in past UNLV), get Air Force to go to the AAC, and implode the Mountain West.

Things are still going on behind the scenes. The Pac-12 was working on Gonzaga. Now, the Pac-12 goes back to the AAC or UNLV or Texas State. Memphis has got to be interested in playing Gonzaga in conference. UNLV has to be interested in playing Gonzaga in conference. There is not one obvious path.  However, if almost everything goes sideways, Texas State seems to be the obvious emergency rip cord.

Having said all of that, I hear that Sac State is committing to upgrade the football stadium.  Tens of millions of dollars.  The Pac-12 would be stupid to just dismiss Sac State out of hand.  That said, I cannot imagine that Sac State is the first choice.

Any FBS member counts, regardless of whether or not they are transitioning.  Even so, any team can announce that they are starting the transition year by early May.  (I am not sure of the exact date, but teams can definitively announce that they will be playing FBS football on May 4, 2025, and count the 2025 season as the transition year.  (And that is true regardless of what their schedule looks like.)

So, any FCS team can become the eighth Pac-12 member, as long as they declare by May 4th (or thereabouts) in 2026.

I have heard it said repeatedly that scholarships are not real money, so there is limited real concern about it.  Scholarships are something that you include to balance the books or to convince the state government to allocate extra funding.

Also, the numbers are wrong.  22 scholarships is the difference.  And you do not have to put up all 22.  You are only required to add 13 scholarships.  For Sac State, just as an example, the issue is somewhat magnified because of the female/male ratio at the school.  The low-end number is 15 women's scholarships.  The high-end number is 27 women's scholarships.

The real issue is that it is difficult to add 15-27 women's scholarships without adding at least one or two sports.  And adding sports can be very expensive.

PAC is NOT adding Scrote State so let’s stop with that conjecture.

I don't think you can claim there is any kind of f%#* up going on. I think you can claim some things haven't landed. But it is the sausage getting made. You can also claim where we stand right now isn't a bad position. We have 7 football schools with a year and a half to go. we have 8 total schools. All the schools are better than the bottom half of the MWC. 

In absolutely no universe did the Pac-12 want the bottom half of the MWC. so we did first, correct, and right thing. We secured the top 4 teams. UNLV is and proved to be a political nightmare of a school. they didn't come first or second because they have to convince not only themselves it is the right move but their legislature. UNLV being bribed to stay is a curveball, but I don't think it is fair to say a f%#* up. We literally matched the staying money. 

Hawaii is a bottom team. Hawaii only has one possible value, it can be an automatic late night kick off nearly every week without negatively impacting that team. But the problem there is they themselves aren't actually east, so does anybody care? 

We aren't sitting in some terrible position right now. before this is done we are going to either A. convince a group including Memphis to join or B (I think probably the more likely one) get Texas State and maybe another Texas school like North Texas to join. 

And lastly, as a lot of people have noted. It appears the odds of the Pac prevailing in their lawsuit against the MWC poaching fees are pretty good. 

I also don't think we are done with Basketball schools. we will get one more. 

Yep... somehow doubled the double on schollies!?🤔

But, reading comments from other FCS admins the 210 schollies across a minimum of 16 sports and keeping Title IX in mind is the toughest budgetary concern. Along with facility upgrades also comes the increased staffing and some NCAA program requirements that not all FCS schools fully fund.

And, schollies are "real" $ in terms of AD budgets. And, is an annual issue. The average FCS AD budget runs from $4-$44 mil, averages $16 mil. G5 budgets $25-$75 mil average about 43 mil. Adding schollies, sport(s) ?, facilities, staffing in many cases could be a 100-150% jump in the annual AD budget depending on the school. And, that's to be near the bottom tier of G5 schools.

Schools have done it, think I saw something like 12 since 2004. Just not sure if any have had any sustained success overall??

Also I've read somewhere that the NCAA is considering another transition increase. Went from $5k to $5 mil, now thinking $11 mil! I suppose it's too keep the pie from being split further??

I'm not sure how or what voting you speak of, or all the voting processes. But the CFP and FBS Oversight Committees are set and new FBS do not change that voting. Full alliance votes, like on the new constitution involve over 1000 members and again they vote without regard to classification.

As far as CFP $, the G5 conferences split a "pool of about 9%"... a new member might make a bit more ($1.8 mil is the estimated amount for each of 64 G5 members), but at the sake of the other teams.