Much has been made in recent days about conference realignment. As with most Gonzaga fans, i find myself riveted at the thought of change, change for the better that is. I have spent the last couple weeks watching and reading all the rumors of how this will shake up college sports as we know it. Here are the current specifics we know:
The PAC-10 has invited 6 teams from the BIG 12 to join their conference. At this time, only 1 team has accepted their invitation, the Colorado Buffaloes. PAC-10 commissioner Larry Scott met with Oklahoma President David Boren and athletic director Joe Castiglione today and we now expect Oklahoma's board of Regents will hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the potential move west. The University of Texas is also expected to meet with Scott tomorrow, and will have its own meeting on Tuesday. I would say its likely both schools will formally accept invitations to join the PAC-10 sometime toward the middle of next week. With both schools leaving the BIG 12, its only a matter of time until Texas Tech, and Oklahoma St. follow. The final invitation to the PAC-10 is Texas A&M, however its believed both the SEC and Texas A&M are more interested in each other. If Texas A&M were to move to the SEC, it is likely they would go after the University of Missouri as well.
This would leave the following schools in the sure to collapse BIG 12, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Baylor. If this happens its likely the Mountain West will invite Kansas and Kansas State to join their already bolstered rotation which now includes Boise State. This should be enough to push them into Auto BCS bid territory for football.
So where does this leave Gonzaga? Where should it leave the Zags? In my opinion, i have always thought it would be a good thing to move conferences to greener pastures, however with the recent events, i would say its unlikely they would get a bid to the PAC-10 or the Mountain West anytime soon. Both conferences are more interested in College Football and its Mega Millions payoff. If you were to ask me today, my opinion has changed, we need to stay in the WCC with the rest of our traditional rivals and in a couple years extend an invite to the Seattle University as well as maybe Idaho or Pacific. The reason i say this is that we are not in a football conference, we do not have aspirations to compete in football at all, and at this time i would say we would do better to continue our run in the WCC. The league is improving every season and the coaching is slowly starting to get better, it would be foolish to chase bigger dreams and end up alienating our closest competitors all for what would be maybe another 5 million a year in revenue sharing.
No lets stay put, lets continue our winning ways and lets aspire to be the Atlantic 10 conference of the west. In all things, LETS GO ZAGS!
