Pac 12 expanding?

[El-Jefe]

"The Pac-12 Conference announced today a series of measures to strengthen and grow the sport of wrestling in the Conference, including an initiative to add members to its wrestling ranks beyond the current membership of six programs for the first time in more than a decade."

The policy change of note: "The Conference eliminated a restriction that capped the number of wrestling affiliates to the minimum number needed to keep NCAA AQ status."

"Affiliates" would mean schools that are not Pac 12 members in football or basketball. Translated: they're looking to poach schools from other conferences -- and there are programs belonging to other conferences while residing in Pac 12 states: Cal Poly, Cal Baptist, Cal State Bakersfield, Fresno State, Utah Valley, Air Force, Wyoming, Northern Colorado. (Hopefully they'll look to actually add programs at their core schools too.)

 

[Tom McAndrew]

"The Pac-12 Conference announced today a series of measures to strengthen and grow the sport of wrestling in the Conference, including an initiative to add members to its wrestling ranks beyond the current membership of six programs for the first time in more than a decade."

Wow. This is a big positive. Perhaps (just speculating) it was already in the works, and was mentioned/sold to Koll during the negotiations. With the number of high school wrestlers in CA alone, there are enough prospects to fill the rosters of additional programs.

(Hopefully they'll look to actually add programs at their core schools too.)

Yeah, poaching existing programs and making them affiliated Pac-12 schools for wrestling would not, in the grand scheme, do much for the sport -- it would simply buttress the Pac-12.

 

[Cali_Nittany]

"The Pac-12 Conference announced today a series of measures to strengthen and grow the sport of wrestling in the Conference, including an initiative to add members to its wrestling ranks beyond the current membership of six programs for the first time in more than a decade."

The policy change of note: "The Conference eliminated a restriction that capped the number of wrestling affiliates to the minimum number needed to keep NCAA AQ status."

"Affiliates" would mean schools that are not Pac 12 members in football or basketball. Translated: they're looking to poach schools from other conferences -- and there are programs belonging to other conferences while residing in Pac 12 states: Cal Poly, Cal Baptist, Cal State Bakersfield, Fresno State, Utah Valley, Air Force, Wyoming, Northern Colorado. (Hopefully they'll look to actually add programs at their core schools too.)

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Hopefully this can be used to help
save Fresno State.

 

[nerfstate]

Hopefully this can be used to help
save Fresno State.

Is there a financial incentive for a school like Fresno State to affiliate w/ the Pac 10? Genuinely curious what the cost/benefit equation is there for wrestling.

 

[El-Jefe]

Is there a financial incentive for a school like Fresno State to affiliate w/ the Pac 10? Genuinely curious what the cost/benefit equation is there for wrestling.

Reduced travel cost vs. current Big 12 affiliation.

But schools like Fresno likely view Olympic sports as a gateway to football/basketball conference admission. Which isn't very likely since the big conferences really only care about TV market size.

 

[PSU_Pride_93]

Is there a financial incentive for a school like Fresno State to affiliate w/ the Pac 10? Genuinely curious what the cost/benefit equation is there for wrestling.

For a sport like wrestling, maybe the only benefit is from a television or media deal, and I doubt that is very large