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Matt Kelly's avatar

Truth. What has happened to the Beavs and Cougs will also happen to Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Boston College, Syracuse, Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Kansas State, Iowa State, and a dozen more schools within the decade.

And agreed there is an inflection point where keeping up with the Jones’s is no longer responsible for all but say, forty schools. The balance of P4 type schools will need to rebuild their value prop, cater to the student athlete with smaller amounts of money, more emphasis on education. This is why I think rebuilding the PAC is actually the best option. Make a truly exceptional western states conference (but with a dip into Texas). Over the medium term, with the right teams in the right markets, it is my personal belief that it can equate to a B12 type league. AND also draw back some of our historic members, e.g., Arizona, Arizona State, California, Stanford, and even potentially UCLA.

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AndyPanda's avatar

"to Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Boston College, Syracuse, Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Kansas State, Iowa State" - note that these are all in the Eastern & Central time zones. And if they must reform as Conference (Eastern) USA on steroids, will do so centered in the east, just as the ACC & BIG XII (XVI) are. At best, OSU & WSU will be the Stanford/Cal of that day, on the western fringe, except with no substantial local market.

The teams that are and will be on a plane with OSU & WSU then as now are the better 2/3 of the Mt West. UCLA (located in LA, as their coach has noted), isn't any more interested in Corvallis & Pullman than they are Fresno, Boise, & Laramie.

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Matt Kelly's avatar

I don’t think I follow your point. Yes, the teams I noted are central and eastern time zone. Yes, I think a reconstituted PAC would have MWC, AAC schools, along with potential remnants of an ACC fallout. No, I don’t agree that Wazzu or the Beavs are poor markets.

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AndyPanda's avatar

They are small and remote markets. Size is what matters in media matters, not quality. If everyone in Corvallis & Pullman tune in, it is still a small fraction relative to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and are located MUCH further away.

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Jim T's avatar

Why is Green Bay in the NFL?

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EA Flash's avatar

Portland and Seattle, where there are thousands and thousands and thousands of OSU and WSU fans, are not small markets.

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Matt Kelly's avatar

Tuscaloosa is a small market, so is Gainesville, Morgantown West Virginia? Manhattan Kansas? Transversely, no one seems to be watching the aforementioned Boston College, or Georgia Tech, Minnesota, or Rutgers games in major markets in any significant way, same can be said of departing Arizona State, and UCLA. So I think it renders your point muted.

College football is indeed currently dominated by TV viewership, which does not have a one to one correlation to market size. Washington State has consistently had big numbers in TV, and OSU is improving in that regard.

As for being remote, also don’t buy that argument. Nowhere is remote if it has viewership, facilities, and fans.

I get your point, and your stance, and have seen it many times from many people. I just don’t subscribe to it.

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BackDoor's avatar

When you analyze WSU's TV numbers you have to acknowledge the opponent. Their bigger numbers came against USC, Washington, Oregon which were drawing the eyeballs - not WSU. For example,

11/25: 5.85M viewers vs Washington on Fox

11/18: 727k viewers vs Colorado on FS1

The 2023 average for WSU was decent, but it wasn't driven by eyeballs seeking WSU.

Tuscaloosa is in Atlanta market, Gainesville in Miami, etc. Small town doesn't mean small market if brand has regional reach. WSU/OSU doesn't have that reach.

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Matt Kelly's avatar

I am a zag, our viewership numbers are better when we beat Duke or Kansas than Loyola Marymount, the Mariners get bigger numbers when they play the Yankees. So not sure of the validity of the point. All teams have spikes when they play certain competitors or rivals.

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