818SUDSFan

Oops. I meant Spartan Stadium. As in the dictionary definition of "spartan."

Bullseye. The schools to be shown the door are Hawaii (through no fault of its own), SJSU (to its discredit because the Spartans have terrible facilities and haven't accomplished anything as MWC members except have a few fair football seasons), and Nevada (which won 60% of its games under Chris Ault but just 44% of them immediately preceding Ault and since he retired and, at 77, the guy isn't coming back for a third go-round plus their stadium is as bad as UNR's).

The Mountain West was at its peak (bad pun inevitable) when it had 9 members. So 7 current MWC members would be a great number for OSU/WSU to poach.

Look at THIS dog excrement: https://www.mwcconnection.com/2024/5/29/24158743/college-football-playoff-group-of-five-g5-power-conferences-polls Some of these G5 idiots are listening to Derek Dooley? JFC.

How 'bout the MWC? Few here are aware of it but about 15 years ago the powers that be were under pressure to give the conference an automatic bid to a New Years bowl game. To put it another way, a decade into its existence, the Mountain West was a darn good conference in football. Then within a couple of years Utah, TCU and BYU all left and Boise and SDSU, schools a notch below the other three, then tried to do the same. At that p;oint the MWC unnecessarily backfilled for the known and anticipated departures with schools probably a notch and a half below Boise and SDSU. (To its credit, USU has upped its game so much that it is no longer a notch and a half below Boise and SDSU.) Adding OSU and WSU would help but nobody should fool themselves into thinking that merging those two with the exiting MWC will return the conference to even close to the quality it was a decade and a half ago.

I'm almost sure I heard that somewhere but it's not important enough to check around so I'll just defer to you and say I stand corrected.

My understanding is that Hawaii has been picking up the travel costs to the Islands for all conference members not named SDSU. Our school always saw UH as a valuable colleague while we were both in the WAC whereas apparently not everyone else did. But going to Hawaii to play football every other year is hella different than sending all or the great majority of your sports teams there that often. Given WSU's remoteness, I highly doubt your administration is going to be elated about being in the same conference as them for all sports.

An example of name stupidity: When the Aztec Athletic Foundation started getting heat from the IRS about its tax-exempt status, the organization made a few changes. One was to rename itself the Aztec Athletic Club and the tax exemption was retained. (Lmao.)

I could be wrong but my understanding is the total COULD be $16.5 each X 6 = $99M + $67.5 = a total of $166.5M to the MWC. Of course, if FSU somehow prevails against the ACC that would have potential impact and in any event, given the history of this stuff, the exiting schools would never pay the full amount the MWC would argue is owed. Rather, the amount paid would be more like 2/3 of the asserted amount. But I agree with Headbutt that the first consideration is how much the CW will be paying OSU/WSU to broadcast their games. If it's just a pittance, that might end things right there.

I don't understand it from Headbutt. However, anecdotal evidence suggests it has otherwise come mainly from fans of MWC schools unlikely to be among the half a dozen that you guys would offer Pac membership to. (And for the dissenters, IIRC, the estimated collective amount to the MWC for six would be $67.5M. Granted, I'm not objective because my school would definitely be one of the six and it ain't my money but I continue to think it's doable.)

Rather than interesting, the word I would use is humorous. Here's the evolution of Chris Murray's article, which I tell in the biblical manner it deserves: Greg Swaim (who appeared to be a wack job a year ago and was later proven to be one) begat Andrew Hughes (pronounced "Who's?") who then begat Farouk Yusuf (see Andrew Hughes) who begat Adam Thompson (a betting handicapper rather than a reporter), Murray's source. As befits Murray's history, you can't base your opinion on better sources than that.

USC's faculty excepted, because of its wealthy alumni base, USC has always been politically conservative so I doubt that the LDS Church's support of the anti-gay marriage initiative much mattered to them. But you're spot on about UC leaders and the degree of their animosity toward organized religion. I'm not going to bother to research it but I wonder whether the sports teams at any UC campus are in a conference with schools like BYU which have a religious affiliation.

I'm pretty sure the NIL $$ that SDSU softball players get is just a small fraction of what the SEC players receive. Probably something like 20 grand compared with ten times that much.

Aztecs will beat Grand Canyon then lose to either UCLA or VA Tech.

My only guess would be Paul Wulff, possibly the worst HC in your history who, IIRC, helped break a lengthy SDSU losing streak against P5 schools.