Canzano: Will the Pac-12 stop at Texas State or keep going?
Source: "Memphis is listening."
Texas State is planning a bang-up Pac-12 celebration party on Monday. Organizers have issued an open invitation to staff, faculty, students, and all the Bobcat sports teams to meet at Sewell Park on campus for refreshments, live music, and a celebratory jump into the San Marcos River.
The river runs through campus. The group plunge is traditionally reserved for conference championships, bowl announcements, and has become a post-graduation commencement ceremony ritual.
“What better place to celebrate?” Lindsey Olsen, a Texas State deputy athletic director, told me.
Meanwhile, the new-look Pac-12 Conference presidents and ADs celebrated the addition of Texas State on a group text chat this week. Several leaders gave Oregon State and Washington State a nod, noting that those two members stayed in the fight and showed some grit over the last two years.
The Pac-12 has now pivoted its focus to adding a football-only member, sources told me. Adding a ninth football-playing member would create an eight-game conference football schedule, relieving the burden of finding one more non-conference game. It would also add tonnage and value to the Pac-12’s TV deal.
Who are the candidates? Is the University of Memphis still a target? How about another Texas-based football member? UTSA? Rice University? Someone else?
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould said on Wednesday that her conference is asking itself some other questions.