I think it is a no brainer but a “be careful what you wish for” situation. Objectively the PAC is a more stable conference that once we join we would probably never have to worry about being left out again. However, do recruits want to play Oregon State, Washington State, or fans want to see a game against Utah, or Colorado? Do casual UH fans want to see a 9:30CST tipoff game on ESPN2 against Cal?
Would they rather play teams like TT, OSU, Cincy, TCU, etc… in better time slots and with better local name recognition and rivalries?
In the end I think you have to take the PAC invite as there is no real confidence that the Big 12 will survive for decades to come but it puts you on somewhat of an island. The key is that hopefully 3 other central time zone teams come to (like TT, OSU, etc…) to dampen the effects mentioned above.
the current big 12 we are in has members publicly saying they want in the pac 12… in the big 12 hearings the senator were lobbying for pac 12 invites for their teams
the idea that we’d pass up a pac 12 invite, isnt reality… can you imagine if we passed on an invite and the pac 12 took other big 12 teams in our place…it would be the most disastrous decision in program history, likely in all of college sports (except for tulane voluntarily leaving the SEC)
we can have a preference for the big 12 as “fans”… the administration wouldn’t even hesitate to take the pac 12 invite… we wouldnt even let them finish
pac 12: we would like to inv…
UH admin: YES, YES YES!!! WE ACCEPT!!!
lol
Even though there is nothing “public” about P12 wanting UH, and the city of Houston, it would appear that B12 would make it very appealing to UH to stay, by dangling financial incentives, and quickly…just in case.
If big 12 teams get offers from the ACC and Big 10 they are gone. Then the big 12 will bring more teams from AAC and we become AAC 2. Didn’t we learn nothing from the Big East?
I don’t like these kind of polls….it’s just like some idiot trying to screw up your wedding …and creating confusion when everyone in the church should be celebrating the wonderful news… reminds me of a spy in the weeds… Bang
Numerous YouTube sports shows have discussed this.
The only PAC 12 expansion that makes any sense is to pick up the 15 million, and growing, population centers of Houston and DFW. And that is why UH is #1 in rankings of expansion candidates. To obtain DFW one must choose between SMU, Texas Tech, or TCU. Stories say they chose TCU, I do not believe that due to their enrollment and Academic stature, Indeed I do not see any of those 3 passing muster.
OSU? Has a presence in DFW. Has Alums and $money. They are a maybe.
It is one or two moves away from being another Big East/ AAC situation.
If Kansas gets a B1G invite (like Rutgers did) and West Virginia gets an ACC invite ( like Louisville did) we are looking at a very familiar situation.
Which one, or two schools, in the Big 12 t are the unanimous anchor blood bloods the conference anchors itself around?
I need to go back and look at the exact timeline of when we accepted to when we played our first game and when all of those non anchor, non blue bloods left the Big East.
I remember it was a flurry all around that time.
And like the Big East, the Big 12 has NO anchor flagship programs except for maybe Kansas but …only in basketball.
The PAC has many flagship schools in large states…not states the size of West Virginia.
That’s the whole point. No team in the Big 12 is “blue blood” enough to where any other conference really wants them. The truth is, no other conference wants them.
Thus, they have no place else to go.
Given that, I don’t see any of them going anywhere.
If the B1G wanted Kansas and Iowa State, then they’d have invited them by now.
Likewise, if the ACC wanted WVu, they could have taken them years ago. They haven’t. Same for Cincy.
As for the PAC-12…I would say that USC is definitely a blue blood, but in football, that’s about it.
The PAC-12 enjoys its regional monopoly from the Rockies on West. I doubt they’ll mess with that.
Whether we get PAC money or Big XII money, we will still need institutional support. Only a handful of schools operate in the black. $10 million isn’t all that much when measured against increased travel costs, lesser fan interest in a PAC 12 schedule, and late TV windows (remember, the media partners say when teams play). None of us know how our administration would treat a PAC 12 invite with our move to the Big 12 in place.
thread. It’s stupid.