Pac-12 Expansion On The Table, Talks Of Promotion/Relegation System In Future
The Pac-12 as we know it is dead and gone, 10 of the 12 members will be joining new conferences next season leaving Oregon State and Washington State on an island by themselves.
A Power 4 conference invitation doesn't appear to be coming their way, and the American won't be adding them either. So, the now "Pac-2" schools are going to end up merging with the Mountain West in some capacity. However, we learned not too long ago that there is a chance that the Pac-12 name can be held by the Mountain West, and according to a report by Yahoo's Ross Dellenger, the two conferences are considering a European-style conference that includes relegation and promotion.
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This method would keep the Pac-12 and Mountain West as separate entities that are partners with eight teams each. So, every year or so two teams that aren't performing in the Pac-12 division would drop to the Mountain West division, while two teams from that division would be promoted to the Pac.
Dellenger explained that the relegation/promotion system is just a thought right now and there's a long way to go in this process, but explained that it would surely garner the attention of media conglomerates. Putting this all together would be quite complicated, but Dellenger broke it down saying the first step is to figure out the Pac-12 money situation that the two programs get for remaining in the conference, keep their automatic qualifying bids in NCAA championship tournaments besides football, and get revnue from the College Football Playoff for each league/division.
Obviously, since the Mountain West is at 12 football members and there are only two Pac-12 teams, the expansion would be in order to get up to 16 teams. Dellenger cited both South Dakota State and North Dakota State as the top candidates. He did explain that they or whoever would join would have to start in the lower division, but how the other teams are decided is a work in progress.
In terms of scheduling the conference could get quite creative, with matchups between the prior year's champion and runner-up, a game between the promoted programs and relegated programs, and crossover games determined midseason by standings.
Dellenger did highlight the issues that could arise if the divisions are paid different media rights amounts with relegation a possibility.
This is where the real problem lies, said one conference administrator. With relegation, budgets will change, dipping by as much as $3-5 million a year. That’s an issue for athletic directors in annual budget projections. There must be a balance struck in the base distribution that allows for annual budget projections.
“If a school is getting $15 million this year, they budget for $15 million next year,” said the conference official. “Well, if we are relegated, we can’t do that.”
There are also concerns as to how this will affect Olympic sports, and if they would implement a soccer-style scoring system for the standings, so three points for a win and none for a loss. All things that are being considered.
“Everything is on the table,” said one high-placed source with knowledge of discussions between the leagues. “We’re looking at a lot of options. This one included.”
Regardless of what they end up doing, they certainly will have to think outside the box in order to not be left behind.
