Comments on: The West Coast Conference Conundrum

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:38:10 +0000

I forgot about the TV network factor, which might end up playing a key role here long term. But if we expect BYU to follow Notre Dame’s lead, we shouldn’t forget that ND is and was in the Big East for every other sport. The WCC can’t compare on any level in just about any sport to the Big East, ESPECIALLY not basketball.

By: panhandleZagFan

panhandleZagFan — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:45:50 +0000

Your response is predicated on BYU’s leaving being a certainty. I don’t believe their joining the WCC will improve the other teams, and I don’t think their leaving the WCC will make the other teams worse. Due to the lack of money the WCC generates in comparison to the PAC-10 I think it is a difficult to sell recruits on a smaller school with inferior facilities that plays an inferior conference schedule and the WCC will probably be little brother to the PAC-10 for some time.

But basketball is THE sport for the WCC schools and some fo the big East Coast basketball teams either don’t have football, or not much in the way of football. In my mind there is a lot of draw in being THE goto guy or gal for the main draw sport at your college. My previous post was optimistic and the first part of this post is realistic (I guess), but my opinion is that the WCC will continue to improve ofr the next comple of years. Outside of this time frame it is too difficult to make predictions.

I also think that BYU may stay. They are going to give it the ol’ Notre Dame go with their football program. If they do well scheduling home and home matchups and the tv channel picks up subscribers, then there is no need to share proceeds with a conference. This could also mean they would not be willing to have a shared basketball tv agreement with the WCC. So, if their football schedulling works out, do they stay? Does the extra 1,000,000 a year for being in a BCS conference offset the loss in not being able to maintain their own tv channel?

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 02:12:57 +0000

Panhandle, I’d be in favor of anything that would make the WCC redo its stupid TV deal with ESPN (the one that supersedes Gonzaga’s with FSN), but can we realistically think that the WCC will improve at all once BYU leaves (which it surely will), let alone to a level where it will actually do any good?

I mean, I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but the world you paint is best-case-scenario. BYU’s goners as soon as it gets a football conference and Seattle’s got a long way to go to be anything different from the sometime-contender I wrote about in the column.

By: panhandleZagFan

panhandleZagFan — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 01:28:26 +0000

I am for BYU joinging the WCC and hope to have Seattle U join later. The WCC would have school sin most Major West Coast cities which should allow for a more lucrative future tv contract that involves all the teams. There is a chance that BYU will knock GU out of NCAA contention in some future season, but that only increases the importance of in season games for the Bulldogs. Of course I hope to stomp them each and every time we play them (Go Zags), but playing against competitive teams is more fun than stomping less talented opponents. So… Financially (that makes sense), Strength of Schedule (that also makes sense), makes all of us fans a little nervous too (of course that makes sense too).

By: ray l

ray l — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:39:50 +0000

not sure i have much more to add. i think adding BYU is a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ situation. good to have competition, bad if we want the zags to have a 95+% chance of making the tournament every year.

but i agree, BYU is gone as soon as they can get into a major conference with an automatic BCS bid.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:52:13 +0000

It freaks me out that even though I naturally fight against the status quo, I’m OK with it here. Sometimes, I even surprise myself.

By: Caveman Lawyer

Caveman Lawyer — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:33:19 +0000

Once again I am freaked out that we agree on what you are saying. I think being in control of ones destiny every year is a great way to keep getting the recruits, TV deals, etc that we are accustom too. Having a basically guaranteed shot in the dance every year is nice. I think playing the non-conference schedule gives us enough experience for a run in the tourney. Like you mentioned above, we have a pretty good record in the post season. Yes there have been a few first round loses that were horrid. None the less, we still had the opportunity that many teams never did. One of these years, something special will happen and that will be caused by the opportunity that playing in WCC gives us. How many other teams realistically get to the post season 11 plus years in a row? 10-12 of the national power houses have that similar of a record. Shit, North Carolina didn’t even make the tourney last year and they were National Champions in 2009. I might not know your hi-ways and bi-ways but I do know this… For the current level at which our program is operating, a more competitive WCC in which we do not have an almost automatic bid to the post season, is not a good thing for the Zags.