Welcome back Friday.
It became official BYU is leaving the WCC.
This isn't a shock to anyone who's followed
the sports world for the last week or so.
However, now that we're
officially at the finish line,
I want to map out what this is
going to look like for BYU.
For Gonzaga and for the WCC as a whole.
First off, BYU
won't be leaving the conference for
another two years, so their final
season will be the 2022-2023 season.
They'll pay the conference $500,000.
To leave at that time,
but that's chump change for BYU.
Honestly, I think this is the
best outcome for both parties.
It makes complete and total sense that BYU
wants to find a home for their football team,
and no one can fault them for that as
it's their main revenue driving sport.
This day was bound to come. However,
if BYU waited three years to lead the league,
the WCC would have gotten nothing.
Not a single penny,
so at least the conference gets some
sort of monetary relief out of this.
If you why you bolted after
this coming season.
The league would have gotten 1,000,000 bucks.
That's obviously double the expense for BYU,
so not as attractive for them
from the WCC standpoint.
Although $1,000,000 is nice,
that would have put them in a rough spot
in terms of finding new members quickly.
This is probably a nice happy
medium for both parties.
Obviously for Gonzaga, this is a big deal.
They lose two games against a
quality opponent every year.
Unfortunately,
I just don't see a lot of
options for the Zags right now.
If they want to leave the conference,
there isn't a league outside of
the PAC 12 on the West Coast.
It offers them a significant bump and
the PAC 12 is on the record saying
they are not expanding the Mountain
West is decent but I'm not sure if it's
worth moving over when they've only
had two teams in the NCA tournament.
Each of the last three seasons a
tournament has been played beyond that,
the Mountain West might be the next
conference to lose teams as the
American Athletic Conference last
three to realignment today and the
Mountain West would be a natural
place for that conference to look
to pick up programs some people
throw out that maybe Gonzaga could
join the Big East travels wise.
I just don't think that's feasible to be
going to the East Coast every other weekend,
especially when you throw every
Gonzaga athletic team in there.
Yes,
you could try to just enter the
biggies for basketball only and
leave Gonzaga's other sports in WCC.
But the conference would collapse
without Gonzaga basketball.
That would be a death wish to the WCC,
and would put all other Gonzaga
sports in a rough spot.
No conference is going to be willing to
accept Gonzagas other athletic teams
if basketball isn't on the table,
essentially entertaining the idea of
leaving the WCC seems to lead to a dead end.
Now that we've traveled down that road
and concluded that it makes the most
sense for these accidents stay put,
we've got to look at what the WCC should do.
Decks that obvious is.
That answer is pretty obvious
to me at a team or two,
and specifically look into
adding teams from the WAC.
I think Grand Canyon is
the most obvious choice,
as there are a program on the rise.
They made the NCA tournament for
the first time last year and have a
well documented fervent fan base.
They're also in Phoenix,
which is a major media market,
and that's always helpful.
Finally, they already have head coach.
With name recognition and Bryce Drew,
brother of Yes, Baylor head coach Scott Drew.
I also think New Mexico State would be an
intriguing ad as they have represented
the wack in the NCA tournament.
Eight out of the last 11 years.
They've built up a good basketball
legacy there and only lost
by a point to an Auburn team
in the 2019 NCA tournament
that made the final four.
Their football team is already
independent as well, so no issues
on that front.
The one thing I know for certain
is this the WCC must be proactive.
And at a team that will give them
another shot to have three teams
in the NCA Tournament every year,
if they don't, that could sour
the conferences relationship with
Kim Saga very quickly.
And for those keeping score at home,
this coming season
will be BYU's 11th in the WCC.
Their men's basketball team has still
never wanna WCC regular season title
or a WCC Tournament championship.
Remember when some people thought they would,
in Gonzaga's dominance in the conference?
Well, that was cute back to you.