Good question. Vegas has an attractive live gate market because of visiting fans and people with casino packages. However it has no tv market.BearGoggles said:Agree re rivalries. The question is do SDSU and UNLV bring media and other revenues? I think SDSU does/can. Not sure about Vegas though that has been an attractive market for NHL and NFL. Is Vegas a valuable media market?philly1121 said:calumnus said:MrGPAC said:southseasbear said:
I'm probably in the minority here, but after thinking about the situation for the last several months, I hope the PAC (at least the 10 schools remaining) stays together. Maybe the Southern Branch changes its mind and SC is replaced by SD St. which would work out well by keeping regional rivalries. Alternatively, Southern Branch leaves and is replaced by UNLV, which expands the conference footprint to a growing metropolitan area.
I agree with Pawlawski who said this will hurt Southern Branch recruiting, particularly in the Bay Area. Parents will have to travel far to see their kids play. Tickets to many of the games (played in the midwest, will be expensive. Players can come to Cal where parents can watch their kids play home games close to home and travel to any other conference game for less the $200. And they won't have to worry about the impact of extensive traveling on their kids' academics.
In the meantime, the PAC should screw SC (and Southern Branch if it leaves) but not permitting its members to play them. Let them travel farther for OOC games or else play the likes of SJ State and Fresno.
If UCLA were to return to the Pac then Stanford would most likely be leaving. San Diego State makes sense to replace USC, but who would we replace Stanford with? San Jose State?
Under that scenario Cal should be the Bay Area rep paired with UCLA as California"rivals" with the UCLA-USC game and Big Game traditions continuing as last game of the year OOC games.
I'd vote for staying as the PAC-10. 2 schools from each state. Better path to the CFP.
However, if we expand and add San Diego State, add UNLV or here is a wild idea: maybe an expansion franchise: UC San Diego. Largest UC campus, great academics, wants to move to D1, can share Snapdragon with San Diego St. and would be natural rivals. The Chargers left so no NFL. San Diego would be firmly PAC-12 territory. It would give the PAC-12 another warm weather location for night games, which is a selling point for the TV contract(s) and fits with tge San Diego lifestyle (plenty to do doing the day).
UCSD creating a football team, let alone a D1 football team is a fairytale. Some sports are in the Big West.
The best additions for the Pac are SDSU and UNLV. You bring SDSU in for Southern Cali and UNLV in for Nevada recruiting. They aren't natural rivals but - SO WHAT? Rivalries no longer matter in college football.
NFL and NHL have national tv contracts and do not care about the local tv market. However the Pac-12 would care.
To add UNLV to Pac-12 would be no more beneficial than adding New Mexico and the Albuquerque market.
Even Fresno State would bring a better market with several million people in the Central Valley.