Originally Posted by
MWC
You are banging on about something that won't happen. The Boise plan is DOA. The Pac 2 poaching teams is a nice dream but neither OSU or Wazzu is a draw. And the exit fees are steep.
The Pac2 is going to sue to get all the remaining assets. I don't know if they will win or not but if they do; They get the entire Pac 12 Network. They get all the basketball credits. They get the Pac 12 stake in the Rose Bowl. Those are sellable assets and they would hope to use that to get into the Big 12. They could live off the funds and offer to play for no tv money in the Big 12 ala the SMU plan. Will it work? Who knows. The Pac 2 will not feel good about any of this even if they get to be in the top tier of a mid major conference.
It takes 9 votes to dissolve the MW. If schools want to breakaway to form what would still be a G5 playing under a small tv deal, they can. If the conference is dissolved, groovy. If not the exit fee is 17 million per school with 2 years notice. It is 34 million with 1 year's notice. SDSU and Boise don't want to form a new conference. Like all G5's they would like an invitation to a Power conference. Those slots are dwindling. A best of the rest is still G5 and not particularly valuable.
As I said before, with or without the Pac 2, the MW is heading towards a performance based tv deal. Have a good year, you get a bigger slice. Fall off, you get a smaller cut. There's a quasi relegation plan right there.
As for NDSU. If the MW/Pac/whatever wants you they will invite you. But, Fargo is not regional to the schools out west at all. You are fairly close to some MW mountain schools. If, as you say, the idea is to be regional that hurts your chances. The original idea was for 3 separate conferences and 3 tiers. By it's very existence it does away with 'regional' because it would be far flung. Say Hawaii was in tier two and got relegated to tier 3. Does that make any sense on any level? You could have the primo tier 3 matchup in the south east somewhere against some school from that area. No one is watching that game. Unworkable..