They won’t join the MWC. They won’t stoop that low simply because of academics.
Stanford and Cal are kinda screwed right now as is Oregon State and Washington State, but in a different way.
Stanford and Cal have options, but they’re going to have to sacrifice. They can swallow their pride and join the Big 12 which would be much easier in terms of geographical logistics, or they can join the more “premier” conference, the ACC, but accept the fact that they have to fly across the country every week in all sports.
Or they can just drop sports all together (which they won’t do)
Stanford is in a tough situation right now. They aren’t joining a P4 conference to win championships. They’re joining to try and uphold some element of prestige in relation to other schools within that said conference
I don’t believe that P2 mega conferences can be a reality.
The B1G & SEC have dead weight in their football team lineups to go to a maximum of 48 teams.
Dead weight I define as football programs that haven’t put the effort in to improve football program in last 10 years through facilities, stadiums, coaches, etc. They have muddled through each year to get by.
• Minnesota has been trying to always field a tough team. Nobody takes them for granted.
• Nebraska sells out every game and have hired good coaches. It hasn’t worked out but I believe they will come back.
Vanderbilt is the same as Stanford. The admission standards make it to difficult to field 80 players who could make a difference. This isn’t an AAU issue. Admission requirements of a university aren’t AAU requirements.
We just need to keep plugging away at our football program the same as we did for our basketball program.
Thats what im saying, all this talk on this board about rice and smu join pac, haha they might be coming to them. Either that or this is all a ruse to get them into the big 10 forever trapping usc and ucla with their ghost
They’d eliminate OOC games. Instead you’d play 4 against the other 12 team division within your conference, on a rotating basis. This would help with the regional issue. (i.e The B1G would be divided into an East and West division)
Remember: the networks want Premiere matchups.
Nobody turns into a Alabama vs. North East West Arkansas game
The only team that can be independent in the current landscape is Notre Dame, but if the ACC implodes then Notre Dame will have to join a conference by force because the B1G’s schedule will be way too loaded.
Out of all the PAC-4, the general consensus is that Stanford “could” go independent. The problem again lays on the fact that they would struggle to schedule any games worth paying for by a network, and if Stanford cares about the program, they will have to become road warriors in order to schedule decent matchups.
They’re better off going to the MWC logistically than going independent because none of the P3 have any schedule room to schedule a home and home with Stanford.
And who from the P3 really wants to go to Stanford let alone watch the game? It’s a waste of time and money.
Does Stanford want to identify as a cupcake, or will they try and be a legitimate independent?
Regardless, Stanford’s schedule as an independent would be 80% away games and 20% home games with marquee matchups being the away games if they intend to prioritize their football program.
If they don’t intend to prioritize the program, then they’ll simply fill OOC schedules as cupcake games for their opponents
If you ask me, Stanford’s ego is way too big to just go 4-8 every year as an independent. That’s embarrassing as an elite institution.