Gonzaga opening talks to join the Big XII makes sense.
It was widely reported that Gonzaga Athletics Director and Big XII commissioner Brett Yormack have met to discuss the Bulldogs potentially entering the Big XII conference in basketball. Apparently, while in Dallas for a "secret scrimmage", Gonzaga AD Chris Standiford took the opportunity to speak with the commish, and why else would these two talk other than potentially joining the conference?
It's all speculation right now, but the move makes some sense. Gonzaga should desperately want to leave a conference that gives them no competition for two months, and the Big XII has stated that it will be "aggressive" in the next round of expansion or realignment. But who benefits from this potential acquisition, the Zags or the Big XII or both?
From a conference perspective, the addition of the Spokane school gives the Big XII a fourth time zone and perhaps yet another TV slot. The Big XII also gets one of the premier teams in the country, a program that has done everything recently except win a national title. From a competition perspective, this is a no-brainer. The TV networks will be salivating at a chance to broadcast yearly games against Kansas at the very least.
Add in conference games against Baylor, Texas Tech, and Houston, and Gonzaga already has at least four marquee games built in. Games against Iowa State, BYU, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia are also tempting. The Big XII will love to have a marquee game literally every night they play and many times, multiple huge games a day.
For the Zags, being in this conference makes their lives that much easier from a scheduling perspective. They no longer have to go out there and consistently schedule every big time program every year simply to satiate the computers that decide whether their strength of schedule will be good enough. That strength would be built in if they joined the Big XII. They could operate like every other big program and schedule what suits them, plus they could stay local and schedule some old West Coast Conference foes in the non-con. Seems like a great deal for the Zags.
As for the other potential competitors for Gonzaga to join, it looks like the Pac 12 would be the hardest hit.
But that didn't stop some from taking an obvious crack at the Pac 12.
Overall, I think this move is good for both parties. The Big XII gets a marquee name and a half dozen (at least) more marquee games, while the Zags get to test themselves literally every game from January onward. That competition will be a huge advantage (unless you believe that a two month vacation helps Gonzaga every year) come NCAA tourney time.
And while this would be for basketball only, it's a power move and one that we've been waiting for the Big XII to make or even consider making for over a decade.
And this is a KU website, so I think this would be great for Kansas as well. Who wouldn't like to go to Allen Fieldhouse every other year and watch the Jayhawks and the Bulldogs? That would be an amazing atmosphere. Probably a tad different for the Zags than traveling to Loyola Marymount's high school sized gym.
And I'll leave you with this tweet from reddit which, all things considered, at least shows that KU has a reputable football program now. Now we'll just have to wait and see if the Big XII and Gonzaga are serious.
