Pacific definitely would want to be in the WCC, but the WCC seems fine for now.

I didn't say UCD voted against anyone. I said they have zero reason to vote for Bakersfield.

The political thing is fun to talk about, because we all picture a group of powerful guys sitting in a bank vault, smoking cigars and orchestrating the universe like puppets; but that idea implies that someone with power in the UC/CS system actually gives a crap beyond the Pac 10/MWC schools. The Cal State's and the UC's are in five different D-I conferences: Pac-10, Big West, WAC, MWC, Big Sky.

The Virginia/Va Tech and the Big 8/Baylor cases are the examples of how state politics influence the decision making of college presidents.

But look a little closer:
We all know that the politicians of Virginia led UVA to say they are voting no unless Va Tech is part of the deal; But where's the same Virginia government pressure for Longwood? A state-supported school who's an independent. Five of the CAA schools are public schools in Virginia. No one gives a damn about Longwood.

Baylor and the Big 12. Anne Richards was a Baylor grad, threatened to cut funding to UT schools unless Baylor got in. No one went to bat for Houston, SMU, TCU, Rice, or any of the other 15 or so D-I schools in Texas that are spread out among seven conferences (B12, C-USA, WAC, MWC, Southland, Great West, Sun Belt). Seven of 12 Southland schools are public Texas schools. Yet, Texas Pan American remains an independent?


It makes perfect sense to all of us to think that the Cal State and UC systems would each lean on their four members in the Big West to push through UCSD and CSB so that both could make more revenue/secure their future. But

(A) there really isn't more revenue to be made here. This is the Big West, a conference which puts streaming video of their games online for free. There isn't a massive TV deal. There isn't anything other than travel costs and splitting their conference tournament revenues additional ways. You're looking at three extra slices of very small revenue streams for little or no benefit for Bakersfield/UCSD.

And let's not forget that the drain of trying to compete at the Division I level when you're not playing big time sports is something the heads of the Cal State and UC systems could be AGAINST. Cal Berkeley is cutting sports, yet the UC system is going to approve UCSD increasing their athletic budget to move to D-I?

(B) the ADs of Big West don't want to play at Bakersfield; don't want to lose home games against better teams in conference, and don't want to split into divisions because someone's getting left out of the cool kids table if they do: There's seven LA-area schools. Poly/UCSB/CSN don't want to draw the short-straw and go to the North; Pacific/Davis don't want to be in a divisional format where they have to go to Hawaii EVERY YEAR and the LA schools don't.

(C) UCSD is an unproven DII that is the second college in a pro city.

(D) The Cal State system and UC system can each use leverage for four votes. But they are powerless for the other four. We're saying "CS Bakersfield; UC San Diego. Four on each side, but going in together that's eight votes." But it's not eight votes. It's four for one, four for the other. That's their out... "the other side doesn't want our guy; we tried."


This stuff is fun to talk about; it's entertaining to follow political trails, plot two moves down the line and see how conferences expand/realign. But we've got to remember that we always:
A - look for movement because we want it.
B - look for symmetry because we want it.
C - think there's more to it when there usually isn't anything besides money.

We want the Big West to add three, because we like the movement.
We want the Big West to go to 12, because 12 is one of the magic numbers (but doesn't really work with Hawaii)
We think the Big West will add Bakersfield and UC San Diego because they have four UC schools and four CS schools, and that's just the conference CSB and UCSD would go to. And we think the politicians of the CS and UC system actually care about Bakersfield and UCSD athletics.


I follow the money and see only Hawaii.

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JP look at your post again you said UCD and UOP have zero reason to want CSUB AND UCSD. If they don't want them, they'd vote against them. Spin it how you want. Long Beach is the CSU headquarters, they care about all the CSUs. SD is a pro sports town and so is LA and LA has USC/UCLA, yet there's still room for Fullerton, Long Beach, Irvine etc in the area to be D-I.

Like I said I only see Hawaii too because money outranks politics most of the time. But down the road they could and have been at 12 before. SJSU is a key to stopping and waiting on CSUB & UCSD.

UCSD can NOT apply to D-I unless a D-I conference invites them to JOIN D-I first under the new rule.

Dback/Quinn. The UOP to WCC thing, back in 2007 or whatever when the WCC was looking? listening? to apps from Seattle, Denver, UOP? They said they wanted 8 or 10 not 9. Now BYU is in and they say 9 is fine. The 3 schools were on the list but I never heard anything on UOP's end about going to the WCC. They'd have 3 schools right there in nor cal with them if they did and I think they are good enough to get the invite if offered but I guess they haven't asked.

Beebe said 12 was the number the B12 would go back to after the 2 left, espn steps in, so they stay at 10. these guys always change their minds or find some BYU or ESPN loophole.

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Big West MB discussing this week's BWC Council meeting regarding league expansion. I am expecting that there will be some type of expansion related statement from the Big West in the near term. Link at http://bigwest.yuku.com/topic/8984/t/An ... nsion.html

Randy Youngman at the OC Register tweeting that the Big West will be announcing later today that Hawaii is a league member for 2012-2013.Not sure about the other two applicants.
Link at http://twitter.com/ocsptscolumn/status/ ... 4331417601

Also, if you're the Big West and you're taking Hawaii for all sports... that leaves the WAC with just five core members.

If the Big West goes to 12, it's not going to be Bakersfield and UCSD rounding out membership. It would be UCSD and San Jose State.

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Article(previously posted in another thread) out of Hawaii reporting that Hawaii will officially announce at noon(local time) today that it will be joining the Big West.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/brea ... today.html

Big West site announcing presser at 5pm(ET) today.
MWC site also announces a presser at same time that will be on "the Mtn".
Link at http://www.bigwest.org//story.asp?story_id=14319

Long Beach State paper reporting that Big West will announce today that Hawaii will be joining that league by itself without the other two applicants.Link at http://www.daily49er.com/sports/source- ... -1.2426924

And here is that announcement - Hawaii (and no mention of any other school) to the Big West sttarting in 2012-13.

http://www.bigwest.org/assets/12_10_10_ ... cement.pdf

The Big West now has six men's volleyball and six men's water polo teams and could begin sponsoring each.

The volleyball has the biggest implications. Currently, there are three automatic bids to the NCAA tournament: to the East, Midwest and MPSF. There's one at-large that usually gets awarded to the MPSF because the west is dominant over the other two.

Now, the Big West could sponsor men's volleyball. Stanford, BYU, Pepperdine, USC, UCLA, UC San Diego could be playing for one bid and Pacific, Hawaii, Northridge, Irvine, UCSB and Long Beach could be competing for another instead of all 12 going for two.

If the Big West schools are the weaker of the group, then sponsoring it themselves would make sense if the NCAA gave them an auto bid. It also could lead to an expanded field if the MPSF schools were like "hey, wait a minute, we've got 22 of the last 24 bids available to us."

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The 6 core for 5 years isn't a rule starting next year. New Rule: 7 non provisional members. 8 FBS members(same as old)

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If no one leaves, the next member of the Big West might be Hawaii-Hilo, just so the trip to Hilo can be combined with the trip to Honolulu.

I'm not really spinning anything. I was stating the UOP and UCD have zero reason to want Bakersfield. Adding Bakersfield creates more things you don't like than more things you do. I know the politics is fun to speculate about, but it's really the ONLY factor in CSB's favor. The ADs of the Big West aren't going to add CSB unless they are forced to by their school system's HNIC.

Like I said, if that happens, it's still only four votes. Unless the HNIC's of the Cal State and Univ of Cal system call each other and say "let's order our eight ADs/Presidents to vote to add USB and UCSD," it's not happening.

UCSD I could see the Big West being interested in. UCSD and SJSU make some sense. But Bakersfield doesn't have an "in" just because of the CS system. Sac State would be ahead of Bakersfield on the food chain anyway because they're in a much bigger market.


With regards to the WCC, Pacific would prefer to be in the WCC. It's a higher profile conference with an ESPN contract. If Pacific had the chance, they'd be there. The WCC hasn't asked because, well, Pacific is in Stockton, which doesn't exactly add TV viewers. If they were in Sacramento, they might have been invited already.

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San Diego Union Tribune article with comments from UCSD AD regarding that school's desire to jump to NCAA D-1 and the Big West.Link at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011 ... -athletics

Another article out of San Diego with comments from Big West Commish and others regarding possibility of UCSD as a future league member at http://www.nctimes.com/sports/college/a ... 9088e.html