Dan Dickau takes a closer look on the trickle down effect of Colorado jumping from the Pac-12
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00:00 Dan Dickow here for Gonzaga Nation SI and a big topic throughout the last at least four
00:11 months.
00:12 It's died down a little bit as of late, but it might pick up again based on some news
00:17 that has just come out.
00:18 But the last six months, maybe even a year or so, could even go back two years when Gonzaga
00:23 flirted with the Mountain West Conference is the overall realignment in college athletics
00:30 and how does that impact Gonzaga?
00:32 Well, you know what?
00:34 Another potential domino fell that might create a little bit more conversation or it might
00:41 close a door or open a door for Gonzaga.
00:44 What do I mean by that?
00:45 Well, Colorado in the Pac-12, which is set to become the Pac-10 in one more year when
00:51 USC and UCLA head to the Big Ten.
00:53 Well, Colorado looks like they are heading to the Big 12 as well.
00:59 So it looks as if USC, UCLA and now Colorado will be out of the Pac-12 a year from now.
01:07 This is big news because a couple of reasons.
01:10 Gonzaga has been talked about and flirted with and had conversations with the Big 12,
01:17 but that would only be basketball.
01:19 Basically every other member in that conference is multi-sport, athletic department wide.
01:25 Gonzaga doesn't have football.
01:27 So then the conversation changes.
01:29 Can they go to that league without a football team?
01:32 Would all of their athletic programs go into the Big 12?
01:35 It's hard to say what those conversations have been because they've been pretty private.
01:40 That being said, Colorado goes from the Pac-12 to the Big 12.
01:44 That creates another huge void for the Pac-12, which will become essentially the Pac-9.
01:51 So San Diego State wanted to go to the Pac-10, the Pac-12, keep changing the name of the
01:59 conference because we don't know what it's going to be called a year from now.
02:02 But San Diego State wanted to go to the league from all indications, wasn't able to get that
02:09 done.
02:10 Mountain West tried to find them a large amount of money.
02:14 Now it seems as though the Mountain West will allow San Diego State to stay at least for
02:20 a little bit longer.
02:22 But San Diego State essentially has shown their needs, their wants, their desires to
02:29 leave into the Pac-12.
02:31 But now with Colorado leaving, does that make sense even for San Diego State?
02:35 With Colorado leaving as well, does that make the Pac-12 really put a full court press on
02:40 Gonzaga because they've been in television rights negotiations with a number of different
02:50 networks and entities for quite some time, but nothing has come to fruition.
02:55 Nothing has been signed on the dotted line because a lot of these networks don't know
03:00 who's in the conference.
03:01 A lot of these networks want to know who's in the conference.
03:04 They want to be able to project out the level of interest and the level of viewership that
03:09 they're going to have.
03:11 And if you take one more fairly large media market in Denver out of the league, it really
03:16 can impact you.
03:19 You're left with when USC and UCLA leave out of the LA market in Denver, which is a big
03:25 market considerably compared to some of the others.
03:31 You're taking a lot of eyeballs off those teams that follow those programs in those
03:37 leagues.
03:38 You have to figure out how to get a name brand, potentially a name brand, or a lot of eyeballs
03:43 to watch your product.
03:44 And that's maybe where Gonzaga becomes a newer, not that they haven't been in the past, but
03:51 a more priority of a target for the Pac-12 because they got to find ways to keep the
04:00 viewership to be able to really maximize their television rights deals.
04:05 There's been conversations and articles written in the last week that it's close, just hasn't
04:09 gotten there.
04:10 It's going to be interesting to see now, does that impact their potential television deals?
04:16 Is there another program or sorry, school or two that kind of has known about Colorado
04:25 being close to leaving for the Big 12?
04:27 And does the Pac-10, Pac-12 have their sights on these other schools?
04:31 And is there advanced conversations and talks already about them filling the holes and filling
04:36 the gaps?
04:37 And would Gonzaga be one of those potential schools?
04:40 It's really hard to say because Gonzaga has done a really nice job in my estimation of
04:44 keeping things close to the vest.
04:46 They haven't shared too much.
04:48 They've been transparent in the fact that they've had conversations, but nothing has
04:51 truly gotten out there.
04:54 Much like the way that I think Colorado has gone about this.
04:59 I think that's probably how we're going to come to find the news of Gonzaga if they ever
05:03 do decide to change lanes.
05:06 I'll stay with the topic though, that I've always said is I think the WCC makes a ton
05:14 of sense.
05:15 And I think the WCC is good for Gonzaga at this moment in time, whether that changes
05:19 years from now, it's hard to say, but still at this moment in time, even with Colorado
05:23 moving to the big 12, USC, UCLA leaving, and there might be an opportunity with the
05:29 PAC 12, I still think the WCC is the right setting for Gonzaga.
05:33 So lots of things back on the table, lots of conversation starters are going on right
05:40 now because Colorado moving to the big 12, a big school, a big program, big athletic
05:47 department like that is going to affect the dominoes.
05:51 Pieces are going to fall in different ways.
05:52 It'll be interesting to see if it impacts Gonzaga in any way, shape or form.
05:56 So for Gonzaga Nation SI, thanks for listening.
06:00 We've got a lot of content that we are going to bring bringing you in the upcoming months.
06:06 Looking forward to being a part of it.
06:07 Hopefully you're looking forward to checking it out.