For the better part of the past five years, there has been a growing rumbling within the Gonzaga Bulldogs’ fanbase that the Zags have outgrown the West Coast Conference.
The numbers don’t necessarily lie. The Zags are routine Sweet 16 participants, often Elite Eight party crashers, and occasional Final Four winners over the past decade. All of this was done while crafting a brutal non-conference schedule that offset a conference slate with Vegas spreads so large even seasoned gamblers would give pause.
So when the Zags and the Big 12 began their flirtations earlier this year, in just the straight-up name of “I want to see Gonzaga play better competition because that is more entertaining than repeatedly 30+ point blowouts,” it was hard to be more excited. Gonzaga, one of the best teams in the country, playing in the Big 12, the best basketball conference in the country, is a match made in heaven.
If only life were that simple, however. Over the summer, collegiate sports as we know it absolutely disintegrated in the name of money. The driver was not NIL like all of the old fuddy-duddies in the NCAA warned us for years; rather, it was media-rights deals. Money corrupts everything, we all know that. Should we be surprised that the ruiners of the sport were a bunch of suits up in their luxury box seats and not the players? Color me shocked.
In a world of evils, rooting for NCAA sports requires most of us to shelve quite a few of our morals and values. Prior to NIL’s emergence in the past couple of years, some of the worse transgressions we just accept as part of our deal with the devil for entertainment include, but are not limited to the following:
- A product completely built on the backs of unpaid labor, much of it from black men and women.
- An organization that oversees said product that in the name of “protecting the students,” constantly hands out absurd punishment for minute offenses on a case-by-case basis as if the entire goal is to be as inconsistent as possible.
- A product that makes the people up top very, very rich.
Despite all of that, and largely due to a desire as humans to feel connected to a community, college sports is able to succeed for exactly why this blog exists: Once a Zag, always a Zag.
The Zags moving out of the WCC is everything that is currently wrong with the state of college sports
You may disagree with that statement, and that is fine. But as I prepare to type get off my lawn into the abyss that is the internet, I can’t help but feel a little bit depressed about the situation.
The dissolution of the Pac 12 was a naked power and money grab that left real victims behind. Student-athletes will now face insane travel schedules. The Washington State and Oregon State athletic departments, once on at least semi-stable footing, are anything but. Decades of traditions and regional rivalries were completely destroyed so people who make a lot of money can make even more money.
What made college sports so beautiful–that passion that exists on a level that professional sports just can’t truly achieve–gone with one fell swoop of a pen. And what is left? The NFL Jr. League?
Gonzaga being a member of the West Coast Conference made sense. The genetic makeup of the schools was consistent, especially now that BYU isn’t a member anymore. The rivalry with Saint Mary’s is one of college basketball’s best. And despite it all, the games against the Portland and LMUs of the world, Gonzaga was winning in March, where it matters most.
There is a trickle-down effect here as well. Gonzaga brings revenue to the rest of the WCC through its shares in NCAA Tournament wins. There is an ESPN deal with conference play that allows all of the other schools to get nationally aired games on ESPN or ESPN2. If you are a basketball player at a smaller school getting the chance for your whole family to tune in and hear your name on live TV, how cool is that?
Mike DeCourcy with sportingnews.com wrote a mostly good column on how the fit for Gonzaga and the Big 12 makes no sense. I say mostly good because his final three paragraphs disprove his premise and are exactly why Gonzaga should make this move if it works out.
There’s only one excuse for Gonzaga to join the Big 12, and that’s if the Zags are concerned about the future of the NCAA Tournament and maintaining access to whatever becomes the definitive men’s basketball championship.
The time to panic is not now, though. There’s still every reason to believe the smart people in control, and there are many, recognize the unique value of March Madness.”
The first paragraph is dead on. The second paragraph is dead wrong. Just ask Washington State and Oregon State. One would’ve thought that the administrators of the rest of the Pac 12 would’ve thought there was unique value in their conference. And they did until more money came along.
Gonzaga needs to look out for itself and only itself
The writing should have been on the wall when the First Four came into existence for the NCAA Tournament because that outcome was a compromise from an even worse idea: expansion to 80 or 96 teams. When SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey revisited this trainwreck of an idea, he was hardly being original. He is just repeating the same tired phrase that only rich idiots want to hear.
The supernova of the Pac 12 goes exactly along with that line of thinking. All of the schools involved departed so they could make more money full stop. No other reason. Stanford and Cal can justify how playing in the ACC is great for everyone until the cows come home. The only people stupid enough to eat that fodder are the people who don’t actually know or care about the sport.
Greg Sankey isn’t proposing more NCAA Tournament teams so that we can get an influx of exciting mid major squads in the first round. He wants his dull-ass 16-16 Georgia Bulldogs squad to be rewarded for the definition of just existing in mediocrity with a No. 18 seed.
And that is inherently why Mr. DeCourcy is wrong. The time to panic is now. The writing is on the wall. People want to fundamentally destroy what makes March Madness great so instead of making $50 million they can make $51 million.
Fran Fraschilla threw it out there for the world to see. This might not happen, but if the history of capitalism says anything, it probably will. Maybe not next year, maybe not next decade, but eventually.
Life is a cutthroat business. If Gonzaga sits by and waits idly, politely, and in its “proper” seat with the WCC for the future of the sport, that future will most likely not include them. The Greg Sankeys of the world are not looking out for Gonzaga. Brett Yormark is only chasing Gonzaga to increase the Big 12’s basketball clout, and therefore, potentially, a greater media rights deal. Would Brett Yormark care about Gonzaga if they were a perennial first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament? Absolutely not.
To be completely honest, Gonzaga to the Big 12 does leave a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I’ll enjoy the competitive games and get over it quickly, but that doesn’t mean I won’t get pangs of guilt every now and then. But to either turn down the opportunity or not look for something better could result in something even worse. It isn’t pretty, but college sports aren’t pretty right now either. It is an awful manifestation of everything that makes capitalism terrible.
And to think there are still some Gonzaga fans who want to stay in wcc. The writing on a wall is go get the f out as soon as possible before it is too late and good teams stop scheduling us and recruiting deteriorats.