--bumped from the FanPosts - ZB

I admittedly have been a bit obsessed with the conference expansion and conference switching. This whole process has sort of fascinated me (plus it helps that it is the middle of summer I suppose) because there is a real chance that this time around it could affect GU. However I read something today that made me mad (Andy Katz's blog):

"Utah State hasn't reached out to the WCC or the Big West. The WCC has made it clear it is not going to take public colleges or universities because its membership is made up only of church-based private schools. The Big West, according to a source with direct knowledge, has heard only from Hawaii and not the other remaining five WAC schools (Utah State, New Mexico State, Idaho, San Jose State or Louisiana Tech)."

Why are the higher ups purposely limiting the WCC so much? The purpose of these athletic conferences should be to develop student athletes not to keep conference membership the same. What good does it serve the WCC to keep out teams like Utah State and New Mexico State (both teams went to the tournament last year)? Its not like the WCC was founded as a religious conference. Nevada-Reno, UNLV, and SJSU all used to be members of the WCC.

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I hate to bring this up again but . . . per Jeff Goodman's Twitter account:

"Hearing from multiple sources there's a strong possibility that BYU goes to the WAC in hoop and becomes independent in football."

Again I will open it up to the TSSF community . . . if BYU can do it, why can't we? If BYU becomes a basketball only school in the WAC that opens up a host of possibilities for GU. Previous conference switching talk was pushed aside because "Gonzaga doesn't have a football team". Well here potentially we have a school who will become a basketball only school on the west coast in another conference. The fact that BYU has a football team is irrelevant if it stays independent. I am not saying that we should go to the WAC, I am just saying that if BYU can become a basketball only school in a conference with football, then I certainly think GU can as well.

I got this link from Colorado's SB site, it details the likely new divisions of the new PAC whatever:

http://cbs4denver.com/sports/university.of.colorado.2.1751602.html

I think if the divisions work out like this it will be a net plus for GU. With a PAC 11 north consisting of UW, WSU, OSU, OU, Stanford and Cal there is the possibility that our chief recruiting rivals in the NW would lose some of their appeal. When the Big 12 still had 12 teams they scheduled BBall like so: each school would play its own division rivals twice and the other division once. That meant that a Texas would play the Big 12 north only one time a year. If the PAC 12 (they are supposed to go after Utah) goes the same way, the PAC NW schools are relegated to playing each other twice a year and lose out on any guaranteed trips to LA (a fertile recruiting ground).

 This may seem like a small victory (very small, if I am honest) but the alternative of a PAC 16 behemoth was downright frightening to me. While we may not be apart of a MWC BBall conference I think this keeps things balanced on the west coast and allows for GU's footprint to grow for a few more years.

(post bumped from FanPosts) - ZB

No offense to our Portland Pilot friends but here is the head scratcher of the WCC scheduling season. UOP will be playing in the Rose Garden against . . . . KENTUCKY?? Good luck to the Pilots and I hope they crush that slime ball Calipari and his crew of semi-pro basketball players (generally speaking).

That begs the question though how do we get stuck with Notre Dame and UOP can pull a home game with Kentucky? How many years in a row will Portland have to travel to Lexington to make up for this?

So I was reading through ESPN's power rankings and I came upon Pat Forde's most recent "ballot" and to my shock he had GU ranked . . . .  24th!! Behind such teams as St. Mary's, Northern Iowa, a five loss UNC team, and Missouri who has losses to those basketball powerhouses Richmond, Vanderbilt and Oral Roberts. Granted this was before the SMC game, but c'mon . . . he has SMC as the 18th team in the nation.Surely this is worth a Gary Parrish style Poll Attack.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/powerranking?season=2010&week=10&pollId=1&show=first

There has been a lot of talk about expansion the last couple of days with the Big Ten trying to add a new team. Which led to talks on SSF of the Pac expanding and somehow GU getting in there. Since it seems extremely unlikely that GU will be leaving the WCC anytime soon, why not talk about improving the WCC. Now, why would anyone want to play in the WCC? Well I actually think there are quite a few reasons:

1) Good National TV exposure - how many WAC or MWC games are broadcast on ESPN (albeit at midnight eastern usually)?

2) A chance to play against one of the nation's premiere programs twice a year and improve your program.

3) The WCC has shown itself to be the one of the best Mid-Major Leagues in the country with multiple tournament bids in the last few years. I would say that despite the likes of LMU and Pepperdine WCC would beat the Atlantic 10 (which actually has 14 teams) top to bottom.

Now the big question is who should the WCC add? Coach Few said in that interview on Seattle Radio that he would only want to add a team that would improve the conference's RPI and I think that makes sense for GU. Also it might be tricky to pluck a team away from a conference that supports FBS (or Whatever Division I is called these days) football. I don't know what type of arrangement could be worked out.

Here are some Candidates:

Seattle U (Independent) - this is a fairly obvious candidate in that it fits with the profile of the other WCC schools, but as Coach Few says it is not up to snuff athletically.

Pacific (Big West) - This is a school that has been to the tournament three times since 2004 and got to the second round twice which is more than you can say for St. Mary's for instance.

Then there are the teams that play in conferences that support football such as Nevada-Reno (WAC) or BYU (MWC). While these teams definitely excel at Basketball and I think would love to play GU twice a year I think it would be hard for them to move conferences. They would have to work out a deal to keep their football teams in the WAC or MWC. If that would be all possible I think BYU would be an ideal choice as it fits the WCC model being a religious non-research intensive institution. I have been reading similar discussions on UW's SB site and they seemed to have dismissed UNR and BYU as not being able to live up to the PAC's academic standards, so it seems likely that they will not move to Pac 10. They also mentioned BYU's religion being a red flag which I don't think would be as a big a problem in the WCC.

Most realistically however, I actually think Pacific might be the best fit for the WCC. They have shown themselves to be a pretty relevant basketball team in the Bay Area and they do have some history of winning in March. If there has to be a second team I am not sure who it would be I looked over the Big West and I didn't see anything too amazing. I would say Portland State from the Big Sky but with the loss of Ken Bone they seem to be floundering this season.

I know the WCC commissioner has talked about expansion and I am afraid that Seattle U might end up in our conference just because they seem to fit the best, but in the off chance it doesn't happen I think its fun to speculate.