SMU and Tulane will get the first calls as soon as Oregon, UA and UW leave the PAC. Not sure why both schools would want to jump into B12 mess. Really don’t know what PAC would do with only 6 schools if that were to happen.
If media dollars influence conference affiliation, this should be known as the Penny Conference, because it will earn pennies on the dollar.
People need understand who pulling the strings in the PAC when it comes to additions, it’s Stanford and Cal. The 2 schools who President’s hardly know they have athletic departments. They are not going to associate there schools with low brow non AAU potential schools, they are just not. Hence it will be Stanford, Cal, WSU, OSU, Utah, ASU after Arizona OU,UW, bolt for the B12
Looks heavily CA and CO, but they also had TX players.
Heavily Colorado recruits with smattering of Texas and Cali boys.
34 Cali players. More than any other state by a large margin outside of Colorado.
So, if they were heavily California while in the Big 8 then they can still be heavily California back in the Big 12.
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With high school football in decline in CA, Deion is probably right to be looking to a conference in FL and TX for recruiting.
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He’s still gonna recruit Cali. Didn’t we just say they were heavily Cali in the Big 8 days?
Its a national recruiting dynamic now. You can recruit anywhere.
Now SMU fans are turning their attention to the mighty ACC!
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This 
Participation in football is way down all along the west coast. Texas is one of 7 states that is seeing participation going up.
You guys are being played by defender.
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Deion can still go into Socal for some guys but the Big 12 gives him better access to Florida and especially Texas. I don’t know the exact numbers but the share of recruiting importance in Texas is higher than it was decades ago relative to California.
Ninety Years of College Football Recruiting (mode.github.io)
Based on the link above (even though the data is a few years old) for instance in the early 90s- LA County averaged about 100 D1 recruits and in the mid 00s was about 150-175 or so and in fact in the 80s LA county had some classes approaching 200 kids. Houston was about 50 or so in the early 90s and by mid 00s was about 100. Dallas area was about 50 and by mid 00s was about 100. The importance of recruiting Texas is only growing relative to California.
My point is, years ago, when they played no games in California, they were recruiting…California.
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One of the major road blocks to the PAC signing a decent media deal is the ability to get Oregon and/or Washington to sign a meaningful GOR. Not “a” GOR, a meaningful, long term, with legal teeth and real penalties for leaving GOR.
I would think that would be a road block with them coming to the Big12 as well.
IF they were to come to the Big12, I suppose that would confirm that BIG does not have a current interest in either.
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I don’t think the GOR is that integral to a TV deal. ESPN could easily pay them what they’re worth now with a clause that says, “if_____ or______ leave the gross payout is reduced by ____ per team.”
I think the GOR is more important to the construction of the conference.
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I think it is 100% integral to a good TV deal and remaining a good TV deal. The ifs, ors, and buts would make a “good” TV into a sub optimal TV deal
Bob Thompson @rltsports Retired President of Fox Sports Networks and BTN Co-founder.
If I was looking at Pac 12 as a buyer I want to know which existing schools are in and who is coming in, and when. Then we can talk $’s. Then I want outs and/or downside protection if schools who I am told are staying and are coming never make it. Sports TV rights 101.
I do not think a GOR can make this conference look any better in a TV deal. Its like putting deodorant and a wig on a pig.
I wonder about that. They may have bigger research budgets, but as far as the actual classroom instruction, is history at a PAC school any different than at a B12 school? Or math, chemistry, physics, English?
I’ve worked with engineers from the whole spectrum of schools from AAU schools to schools such as Lamar. I’ve seen no appreciable difference in them, other than there were a few snobs from schools like Rice. Those guys weren’t better – or in many cases as good – as the ones from the less renown universities.
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