Column: Gonzaga vs. USF at Chase Center is great for WCC, bad for college basketball traditions

Before he was brought in to be the commissioner of the West Coast Conference, Stu Jackson played a key role in the development of the Big East as one of the premier conferences for college basketball. Even after realignment shook the Big East in 2013, Jackson helped secure a landmark broadcasting deal with Fox Sports 1 to elevate the league's notoriety despite the lack of competitive college football.

Now out on the West Coast, Jackson is taking a similar approach as he strives to increase the WCC's notoriety and revenue through college basketball.

"With respect to the WCC, we have an opportunity to also take advantage of that type of exponential growth going forward," Jackson said on the Gonzaga Nation podcast. "There's an opportunity out in the future upon our next media rights deal on linear TV to perhaps increase our revenue in that way so that we too can benefit much in the same way the Big East did with the growth of their conference."

The first move in increasing visibility came over the summer when the WCC expanded its partnership with ESPN to include over 900 league events across its linear platforms and ESPN+ streaming service. It's a major step up from the WCC Network, which had roughly one million subscribers compared to the 25.3 million subscriptions ESPN+ boasts. Parlayed with a media rights deal with CBS Sports Network, the WCC will be exposed to the rest of the country like never before.

On Friday, the conference announced that Gonzaga and San Francisco will play a regular-season game at the Chase Center, the 18,000-seat venue that is home to the Golden State Warriors. And while the WCC clash will be exposed to a national TV audience on ESPN2, it brings to light the conundrum many have with scheduling neutral-site games in college basketball. While premier matchups in large arenas can be great for revenue and TV, there's something to be said about the atmosphere of the home-court advantage and the spirit that comes with rivalries.

Updated Gonzaga men's basketball depth chart for 2023-24

TV money getting in the way of tradition in college sports. It's not the first time it has happened, and it surely won't be the last.

Over the years, Gonzaga has taken matters into its own hands through rigorous nonconference schedules that often involve playing the nation's best teams away from the McCarthey Athletic Center. In fact, of the 20 top-25 nonconference opponents the Zags have faced over the last five regular seasons, only one has been played in The Kennel — when No. 5 Texas came to Spokane in 2021. Outside of that matchup, Mark Few's program has played 15 neutral-site games against top-25 opponents along with four true road games.

It will be more of the same in 2023-24 too, as Gonzaga will venture to Honolulu, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Seattle and Lexington, Kentucky, to play high-quality competition. There is potential to host one top-25 opponent when San Diego State comes to town on Dec. 29 — though there won't be a student section with Gonzaga on winter break during that time.

There's no hiding the fact many Power 5 programs simply don't want to play in the 6,000-seat venue that is The Kennel. Kentucky coach John Calipari cited that very reason as to why the Bulldogs and Wildcats had to play in the Spokane Arena last season instead. While that was essentially a home game for Gonzaga, the lack of respect toward The Kennel's game-day atmosphere was still evident.

Now, the shade is thrown toward the historic War Memorial Gym and the San Francisco Dons faithful. Better known as The Hilltop, the 3,000-seat venue has been home to many memorable WCC battles over the years. The men's basketball program has certainly surpassed what its home venue says about its success, as the Dons have won 20 or more games in six of the past seven seasons to go with an NCAA Tournament appearance in that span.

Gonzaga has dealt with traveling before, but to move a WCC regular-season game to an NBA-level arena says much more about Jackson's desire to increase the conference's exposure and revenue through its top-performing basketball programs.