PAC-12 melt down

[mike87]

TBH, I'd like a couple decent programs join CUSA. Belt is at a good number. And, that conference needs it to help our bowl games become relevant again.

[Captain Morgan]

wonder if ECU is one of them? If so, their fanbase won't be happy flying to the left coast for meaningless games.

If not, Sun Belt is their best option.

Highly doubt Easy U in the four.
If I had to guess...smu, south Florida, Memphis and Tulsa.
Or sub Tulsa for FAU
I would think for TV markets... EasyU is not a big TV market

yeah it's kind of funny to think about ECU in the same conference with Cal and Stanford...and again the top teams get taken from the AAC, and again ECU isn't one of them.

[VNova]

I can’t imagine PAC would want every school in the AAC. I imagine Navy going back to indie than be in a coast-to-coast conference.

If I had to guess, the four schools I’d pick are long-standing AAC members west of the Mississippi. Maybe Wichita State, SMU, Tulsa, and Tulane.

[spacemonkey]

wonder if ECU is one of them? If so, their fanbase won't be happy flying to the left coast for meaningless games.

If not, Sun Belt is their best option.

Highly doubt Easy U in the four.
If I had to guess...smu, south Florida, Memphis and Tulsa.
Or sub Tulsa for FAU
I would think for TV markets... EasyU is not a big TV market

It is being reported that they are only looking to add the AAU schools. I don't think ECU is Aau.
My guess is the PAC is setting itself up to merge with leftover acc members in 2035

[BallantyneApp]

wonder if ECU is one of them? If so, their fanbase won't be happy flying to the left coast for meaningless games.

If not, Sun Belt is their best option.

Highly doubt Easy U in the four.
If I had to guess...smu, south Florida, Memphis and Tulsa.
Or sub Tulsa for FAU
I would think for TV markets... EasyU is not a big TV market

It is being reported that they are only looking to add the AAU schools. I don't think ECU is Aau.
My guess is the PAC is setting itself up to merge with leftover acc members in 2035

only Tulane Rice and USF (2023 addition) are AAU members. SMU is considered a pretty good school. UAB has surprisingly good research statistics.

If the PAC does the inviting my guess is it would be something like:

PAC 4+

Rice/Tulane/SMU/USF or UTSA (R1) or Navy for 2024 season

+ SDSU/Colorado State/Boise or UNLV or Airforce for 2025 season.

Maybe some combination of all in 2025.

Navy likes going to Texas for student recruiting reasons (and would probably like going to San Diego to play in front of large amount of Navy employees).

Navy is also sneakily the most valuable AAC TV asset left. Every other year game with Notre Dame and ability to land regular P5 opponents (Army game is seperate contract)

[AppSt94]

Is the “P5” status gone? I would have to assume so.

[VNova]

Is the “P5” status gone? I would have to assume so.

I thought PAC would still be considered one of the autonomous conferences until the NCAA bylaws were changed?

Maybe to the media that’ll change, but they’ll still have the benefits of greater autonomy.

[hapapp]

Back to pack 12 meltdown. We are truly ruining college athletics. Powers that be are catering to the Walmart fans instead of the students/alumni. Students and Alumni want to play close by teams for two reasons. Water cooler talk Monday morning and to be able to drive to away games. I really hope our situation does not change for the rest of my life unless it is a ECU addition to the Sunbelt or some kind of east break away with the addition of Wake, Charlotte, ECU. I am hesitant on Wake because they will not be happy with that situation and they are private. I would like to stay in a conference with public universities. These new conferences are just sad for Texas, Oklahoma, USCali, Washington, Oregon and UCLA. We are about to see some very unhappy fan bases. I hope UNC joins one of them and they go 4-8 for the next 30 years and go 11-11 in basketball for the next 30 years. If I were buying college sports like stocks, I would be shorting college football at this point...and probably basketball. I would be buying College Soccer.

Love him or hate him, Drinkwitz was spot on in his press conference when asked about realignment. Everyone making the decisions is only seeing dollar signs. No one is thinking about the girls on the softball team at Rutgers who will have to fly to Los Angeles in the middle of the week and still be expected to keep their grades up. No one is considering what the cost to fly the track team halfway across the country 2-3 times a year. No one is considering the mental and physical toll these super conferences will have on athletes, especially athletes of "secondary" sports like baseball, softball, wrestling, soccer, etc.

I agree with what he said, but he doesn't apply this to his own life. Drink is an intelligent human being, but also a narcissist, perfect for 2-3 year stints along his career.

And his salary is very much there due to all the money grabs by the powers that be. Is he willing to take a pay cut to FCS level salaries I wonder?

Exactly. We all know that answer. Drink was not wrong but he is also a hypocrite. We have seen what he is as a head coach when he isn't given a top 25 talent team to work with.

Perhaps he is a hypocrite, but it is possible to be all in on big time college football and also aware of the needs of Olympic sports and their athletes.

[Saint3333]

Nothing he does ever seems genuine. Perhaps it's just the delivery.

[AtlAppMan]

I hope the Sun Belt has been proactive during this round and been in constant conversation with their first choices to pickup as members. I would think 16 is max capacity so I would be looking to pick up two. If PAC-4 starts to raid AAC we gotta be there.

ECU and Navy or one from Florida would be my preference. No matter we have to be proactive just in case. If we had preliminary discussions with our first choices then when crap starts happening they may run to SBC.

[spacemonkey]

I don't remember if ECU was a friend or a foe when we were trying to make it to FBS football. If they were (Friend), I hope we help them land in the SBC if they need it. If they were not (foe), I hope we let them fall behind. If they stay in a watered down AAC we will pass them.

[Saint3333]

Terry Holland, ECU AD, was a friend during expansion, but they left for the AAC.

[AppStFan1]

Love him or hate him, Drinkwitz was spot on in his press conference when asked about realignment. Everyone making the decisions is only seeing dollar signs. No one is thinking about the girls on the softball team at Rutgers who will have to fly to Los Angeles in the middle of the week and still be expected to keep their grades up. No one is considering what the cost to fly the track team halfway across the country 2-3 times a year. No one is considering the mental and physical toll these super conferences will have on athletes, especially athletes of "secondary" sports like baseball, softball, wrestling, soccer, etc.

I agree with what he said, but he doesn't apply this to his own life. Drink is an intelligent human being, but also a narcissist, perfect for 2-3 year stints along his career.

And his salary is very much there due to all the money grabs by the powers that be. Is he willing to take a pay cut to FCS level salaries I wonder?

Exactly. We all know that answer. Drink was not wrong but he is also a hypocrite. We have seen what he is as a head coach when he isn't given a top 25 talent team to work with.

Perhaps he is a hypocrite, but it is possible to be all in on big time college football and also aware of the needs of Olympic sports and their athletes.

100% aware as we all are and so are the people making the decisions. They simply don't care how it effects Olympic sports because they don't bring in revenue.

The bottom line is they are making the same decision he made. The presidents, ADs, and TV executives are making moves that will bring in more money. Drink left the NC State OC job for App and left App for Missouri because he thought it would make him the most money. Do you think he really considered his kids being in 3 different schools for 3 years or his wife having to make new friends and be in a place in each of those moves? Of course he did but he decided that the money was worth it for the family.

[AppStFan1]

Nothing he does ever seems genuine. Perhaps it's just the delivery.

Not genuine at all. He tells people what they want to hear. Just listening to him talk about our recruits I was very scared that he was screwing us with his class, which he did. He might do a good deed for show but he won't actually take a stand that could risk his job.

[Stonewall]

ECU wanted us to partner with them and leave the SOCON back in the day ...they have recently been invited to discuss SunBelt membership, and declined.

[BallantyneApp]

ECU wanted us to partner with them and leave the SOCON back in the day ...they have recently been invited to discuss SunBelt membership, and declined.

Recently being in the 2020/2021 realignment phase or during this current phase?

Either way as long as the aac exists there is no path for ecu to join the sun belt

[mike87]

I don't remember if ECU was a friend or a foe when we were trying to make it to FBS football. If they were (Friend), I hope we help them land in the SBC if they need it. If they were not (foe), I hope we let them fall behind. If they stay in a watered down AAC we will pass them.

you mean we will lap them. Already passed.

[Appst86]

I can’t imagine PAC would want every school in the AAC. I imagine Navy going back to indie than be in a coast-to-coast conference.

If I had to guess, the four schools I’d pick are long-standing AAC members west of the Mississippi. Maybe Wichita State, SMU, Tulsa, and Tulane.

Wichita State has not had a football program since 1986.

[VNova]

I can’t imagine PAC would want every school in the AAC. I imagine Navy going back to indie than be in a coast-to-coast conference.

If I had to guess, the four schools I’d pick are long-standing AAC members west of the Mississippi. Maybe Wichita State, SMU, Tulsa, and Tulane.

Wichita State has not had a football program since 1986.

Correct, but their basketball team has made the basketball tournament 7 times in the last 10 years.

I know, basketball doesn’t drive realignment but still an option for a desperate conference looking for someone closer to the footprint.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

I can’t imagine PAC would want every school in the AAC. I imagine Navy going back to indie than be in a coast-to-coast conference.

If I had to guess, the four schools I’d pick are long-standing AAC members west of the Mississippi. Maybe Wichita State, SMU, Tulsa, and Tulane.

Wichita State has not had a football program since 1986.

Ted Lasso begs to differ