Beaver-Poke

Call him a liar if you wish, but here is a quote from WCC commissioner Stu Jackson on GU leaving: “They were very transparent about conversations and shared what they could along the way during discussions with both of those conferences,” Jackson told me. “It wasn’t a surprise call. I congratulated them. I wished them the best.”

Gonzaga had been talking about leaving the WCC for years. So, the WCC added Grand Canyon and Seattle. WCC commish Stu Jackson said GU kept him in the loop throughout the process and that GU leaves with absolutely no hard feelings.

The MAC boards are saying NIU to the MWC for football is a done deal, but Toledo is probably staying put. NIU is just looking for someplace to park their other sports programs and once that happens the move will be announced.

Ha. If Georgia and Alabama were in the same division and actually played each other every year in the regular season, like Ohio State and Michigan, they'd have half as many championships because someone would have been eliminated from the championship game and not gotten the second bid to the playoffs. The P4 need those 3-4 annual home games against FCS/G5 teams to inflate their records and ensure bowl eligibility. If they only played P4 opponents almost everyone would go 9-3 and that's not sexy enough for the networks that run college football.

You lost almost all of your good football programs. You did lose all of your good basketball programs. You won't get anywhere close to $67 million from the Pac. You lost most of your top TV markets. But yeah, you won. Spin away. If I'm Wyoming I do whatever I can to buy my way into the Pac-7, preserve the Border War and Bridger Rifle rivalries and leave this trainwreck behind.

The lawsuit is not going to fail. If it even goes to trial (which it won't, IMHO), the "poaching" provision will be found to be an illegal restraint of trade, and thus unenforceable, and as such it won't matter if both parties signed it. I believe the lawsuit will lead to a settlement, probably in the range of $2-3 million per school. UNLV and Gonzaga will become Pac-9 members. The MWC will get between $10-15 million from the Pac and much more from the departing teams, and use that money to rebuild, just as the Pac rebuilt by using exit penalties paid by its departing members. Both leagues will get on with life, and probably continue to play against each other because it's in the best interest of the teams, no matter what the MWC commissioner might want. I know OSU has future football games scheduled against UNM and SJSU. Those are good matchups and it would be foolish to cancel them. I'm sorry the full reverse merger didn't work. But trying to extort $30 million from the Pac-2 for 14 football games that were overprices at $14 million this year wasn't a strong or smart move. In fact, it started the process that ultimately will make the new Pac-9 the top West Coast-based football and men's basketball conference.

A wonderful outcome for the many who want the conference to be western-oriented and who wanted nothing to do with the AAC.

Congrats and welcome to USU. O hope the lit up the "A".

All in fun. Oregon did smoke us. And like the other USU poster who delighted in seeing us and SDSU lose, I have delighted in seeing former Pac-12 teams lose in the first two weeks, but not many of them have.

Haven't seen the score, how did you guys do against Utah and its backup QB?

An established conference like the WCC is not going to allow Grand Canyon or Gonzaga to play basketball in another conference and still maintain conference membership in other sports. It's all or nothing.

The state has a $2 billion rainy-day fund. It can be tapped if enough legislators feel it's appropriate. But since the Freedom Caucus doesn't even believe in public education, don't hold your breath.

Gotta stay current. Unless those Freedom Caucus idiots in the legislature succeed in destroying the university, I could see the Pokes ponying up the buyout money themselves and petitioning the Pac-2 to join. No point in renovating the WAR to play in a lesser league than we're already in.

Apparently not.