good clip of the b12 commish.
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Wilner’s a pretty authoritative source, is he not? I have to imagine this is a good sign.
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Okay we are not sure what the PAC12 is going to on expansion, but Jon Wilner of the Mercury News, thinks UH is the clear No. 1 pick if they do expand.
The Cougars haven’t been as successful competitively as UCF, at least in football, but they would meet the Pac-12 standard in every other respect — and to a much greater degree than any existing Big 12 schools.
Houston is not a member of the AAU, but it’s an R1 research school. It’s public. It just built a medical school. It’s reasonably accessible from the West Coast (i.e., non-stop flights). And it’s the No. 8 media market in the country.
Also, according to Navigate’s research …
— Houston’s athletic department spent $22.92 million on equipment/facilities and $16.55 million on coaching salaries in 2019.
The median figures for each bucket in the Pac-12: $22.98 million on equipment/facilities and $20.26 million on coaching salaries — and that’s with substantially lower annual conference distributions.
(Data source: Knight Commission and USA Today.)
— The Houston football program’s average power ranking (S/P+) over the past five years is 57.4.
The Pac-12 average isn’t much better: 49.3.
— The basketball program’s average power rating (KenPom) over the past five years is 20.2.
The Pac-12 average is 82.7
— Houston has produced more ESPN-300 football recruits than any city except Miami.
— Since 2013, Houston’s football program has drawn an average of 3.33 million viewers on the main broadcast networks (Fox, ESPN, ABC, CBS) when facing Power Five opponents.
— Of the Pac-12 teams, only Oregon’s viewership is higher (4.66).
(Data source: SportsMediaWatch)
And we’d add one final thought:
Once Oklahoma and Texas depart, the Big 12 will have zero presence in the massive southeastern Texas region.
The SEC will be king, of course, but there’s room for a prince. The Pac-12 should fill that void before the ACC does.
So from here, it’s clear: In the Pac-12’s expansion universe, Houston is the no-brainer No. 1 pick.
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In an alternate universe. Ya. Sure. That’s a good sign. When the sun rises from the west.
If anyone has account on Baylor Fans, post that up and watch the meltdown
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Yes we hope the sun rises from the West tomorrow and shines brightly on Houston. 
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very telling
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I just knew someone else thought that. And he believes it enough to put it out there.
Wife and I went to Ecuador several Presidential terms ago.
Talking to various people there in my limited Spanish and their very limited English, we got the exact same reaction from several Ecuadorians when they found out we were from Texas:
“Ah, Tejas! Bang-bang! [with finger guns blazing] George Boosh!”
Definitely a great and entertaining reaction.
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well we have just under 1.5 days till we find out!
…and the PAC 12 announced they are not expanding. Can we please put the “UH to the PAC 12” scenario to rest??
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Another pony show by the pac 12
LOL… When I was in Ecuador, I would always get asked if I knew their random aunt or cousin in Miami or Boston.
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In NY, a woman who knows I was in Houston asked me if I saw her son.
He was in Dallas. I told her Dallas and Houston are pretty far apart and she was amazed.
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My favorite time was being a teenager at the Louvre. We were waiting to go in and these half drunk Swedish guys at the table next to us asked where we were from. We said the US and they nodded. Then one asked where at in the US. We said Texas and they all looked at each other and said, “Ahhhhh Texas!!!” Started toasting us even though we weren’t nearly old enough to drink.
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Btw, that highly paid coaching staff reeled in the 83rd ranked recruiting class. UH is behind UTSA, North Texas, USF, Tulane and Toledo.
I have no problem with the people this staff has brought in. Transfers don’t count toward the ranking
The Pac was never going to expand right now.
And, as far as recruiting goes, Dana obviously doesn’t think his team is mature or old enough to do primarily HS recruiting.