Canzano: Pac-12 adds Gonzaga... what's next?

Pac-12 Commissioner: "Key piece of our plan."

Gonzaga is joining the Pac-12 Conference.

Gonzaga University has long been coveted by the Pac-12.

The conference finally closed the deal.

Discussions between the entities accelerated on Monday, and an agreement was reached. Thayne McCulloh, Gonzaga’s president, informed West Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson late Monday night, per sources, and a joint announcement at 8 a.m. on Tuesday was planned.

The Zags will join the Pac-12 in all sports beginning in the 2026 school year. It was a brass-ring get by Commissioner Teresa Gould’s conference. And one thing about the new-world Pac-12 is now clear — it is building a college basketball powerhouse.

Gonzaga is in the Pac-12.

Wrap your head around that.

Gould told this publication: “Key piece of our plan.”

What happens next?

Some other thoughts:

• Is UNLV ready to reconsider its re-commitment to the Mountain West? Was that a binding agreement or just a letter of intent? I have to think the Rebels, with their Final Four pedigree built by the late Jerry Tarkanian, would be into the basketball movement going on in the West.

• Memphis? Ready to re-engage? Athletic Director Ed Scott told reporters last week that the terms he saw on paper were a “bad deal” for his school. It couldn’t have been the Pac-12’s final offer, if it was an offer at all. Scott’s explanation last week sounded more like “it’s a ‘No’ for now.” The Tigers have a strong basketball legacy. But adding them would be a deviation from the Pac-12’s geographic footprint.

• The Pac-12’s plans for “discussions” included Grand Canyon University, among others. There’s no telling how interested the conference would be in a second WCC school. The conference may have bigger aspirations. GCU is not anywhere near the level of Gonzaga, but I’m told the school is interested in talking. Let’s see if anything comes from that.

• Any other restless schools out there? The Pac-12 has demonstrated it’s not interested in adding “just any school” to grow the conference — it’s being hyper-selective.

• A few of the Pac-12’s seven athletic directors told me they were surprised the Gonzaga news didn’t break on Monday night. The schools pulled closely together and agreed on “no leaks” as the terms were finalized. The conference is in trust-building mode right now, and some trust was built in the process. An erroneous report that a deal was signed and sealed a week ago didn’t help the negotiations, but it got done.

• The Pac-12 still needs one more football (and all-sports) member to reach the NCAA minimum of eight schools. It has 21 months. But the conference wants to get to market and sell its media rights, so I don’t expect the next move to take very long.

• Getting Gonzaga is a win for the conference. The university has an iconic basketball program and favorable geography. Beating out the Big 12 and Big East for the Zags is a nice public victory for a conference that needed one, no way around that.

• This new-world Pac-12 now consists of San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, Utah State, Gonzaga, Washington State, and Oregon State. That group of schools has averaged 4.7 NCAA Tournament appearances over the past three years.

• The conference’s KenPom score would now rank fifth nationally, slipping in front of the ACC.

• I was told very early in the Pac-12’s rebuild that the conference’s brand was too valuable to abandon. It’s why OSU and WSU went to court to fight for it. The data and analytics studied by the conference’s consulting firm — Navigate — later supported that. But the defections we’ve seen in recent weeks from the top of the Mountain West (and Gonzaga) underscore the value of the Pac-12’s brand.

• Mark Few wanted to be in the Pac-12. Gonzaga administrators wanted it. Zags fans wanted it. Those East of the Rockies probably don’t grasp the value of the brand and 108 years of history. But the top schools in the West are huddling together under the Pac-12’s banner. We’ll find out soon who else wants to join.

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