As a reborn Pac-12 seeks to fill out its roster moving forward, the best candidate is obvious: Go get Gonzaga

Thursday’s news that Oregon State and Washington State had successfully pulled off a hostile invasion of the Mountain West and lured Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State to reform the Pac-12 was somewhat unexpected, in terms of how relatively quickly it came together. It also puts the Mountain West in peril. 

“You’ve gotta be excited, because the alternative is being one of those teams being left behind,” one Mountain West source told CBS Sports. “Whether it’s the perfect move for us or not, it doesn’t matter. The alternative is you’re the Summit League or the old WAC.” 

Like that, the Pac-2 became a Pac-6. No matter the next size to come, branding wins out, so, yeah: It’s still going to call itself the Pac-12. And it won’t be the Summit League or the old WAC, that’s for sure. 

This latest major shakeup to college athletics doubles as a rebirth for one of the most acclaimed leagues in college sports history. Oregon State and Wazzu were left for dead, but now, thanks to having hundreds of millions of dollars after winning in court after every other former Pac-12 school fled to the Big Ten, Big 12 or ACC, the victims have turned into the hunters. More schools will be joining those Pac-6 in the months ahead. Who, though? 

Sources tell CBS Sports that a batch of programs in the American Athletic Conference — Memphis, North Texas, Rice, Tulane, UTSA, even South Florida — are under consideration for invitations. We’ll see how many receive the bids. Decisions based on football potential will be guiding the way, as usual. Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould and the six presidents of the schools in the rebranded Pac-12 are trying to refashion a century-old league with enough football bona fides to separate from the rest of the Group of Five conferences. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. I’m not sure. 

But what I am sure of is, in this instance with this rising conference and the opportunities that await, football doesn’t have to be the only driving force. There’s a three-word dictum that should be at the top of every presentation deck Pac-6 ADs and presidents display internally in the weeks/months ahead. 

GO GET GONZAGA.

As the Pac-12 tries to reestablish respectability in football, an irony lingers: its biggest possible addition is a school that doesn’t have a football program. 

There is no school that would create more positive feedback, bigger headlines and bring a bigger reputation boost to the reborn Pac-12 moving forward than the Zags. Gonzaga has such national cachet, it would instantly be the flagship basketball entity in this league. 

Including GU would bring about such competitive credibility, the conference would get an upgrade within the hierarchy of college basketball. The Pac-12, as it previously existed, was too entitled and haughty to ever consider bringing on Gonzaga. 

But this is the new Pac-12. And in an effort to maximize its marketability and potential, it needs to chase the Bulldogs. A high-ranking Pac-12 source told CBS Sports on Friday that they are open-minded to any options in expansion. That means Gonzaga is, at the very least, in the discussion. Whether Gonzaga is on board with this remains to be seen; there are cases for GU to stay put in the WCC, especially with unknowns about how much money stands to be made for Gonzaga if it did make a move.

What’s irrefutable is that no potential Pac-12 candidate out there has the year-over-year (over-year-over-year-over-year) relevancy of Gonzaga. GU has made every March Madness since 1999. Its winning percentage in that span (.834) ranks No. 1 in men’s college basketball. Gonzaga’s made two national title games and been ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 42 times in the past 25 years. It’s been ranked 325 weeks in the span — only trailing Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan State. 

No program (current or potential) in the Pac-12’s reach is more of a needle-mover than the Zags. Mark Few, not yet a Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame coach, is quite likely to one day get there. The fan base is among the most passionate in college athletics; GU boasts a top-10 home court advantage in the sport. The geography is perfect. The inherent rivalries with Washington State and Oregon State make sense. (Those schools would be outright fools if they tried to stop this from happening. Gonzaga would only bring them bigger chances at increased relevance in basketball.)

Plus: Gonzaga’s basically got nowhere else to go, other than to stay in the WCC. Maybe it does stay in the WCC, but fact is Gonzaga has played footsie with three other leagues over the past decade-plus, to no avail.

Commissioner Brett Yormark’s interest in bringing on Gonzaga in the Big 12, which was publicly known and subject to a lot of reckless speculation in the back end of 2023, is no longer a thing. Gonzaga’s chances of joining that league are done. Too many league presidents and ADs in that conference quietly put the kibosh on it last December — and to be clear, although Gonzaga was of course open to the idea, it also wasn’t begging to get in, according to sources. 

The Big East is also not on the table for the Zags. As has been explained to me a half-dozen times in recent years by Gonzaga and Big East sources, the only thing preventing a Big East/Gonzaga marriage is geography. I can safely report that Gonzaga is not moving its campus to the Midwest, therefore it’s not a candidate for Big East membership.

In the late 2010s, Gonzaga seriously explored whether it would be worth it to move to the Mountain West. Ultimately, the cons outweighed the pros. That decision looks particularly keen now. With the MW being the latest league to face an existential crisis, the only conference that could be a candidate for Gonzaga to move is this new Pac-12.

However, the Bulldogs benefit from a unique arrangement in the WCC. Because of their dominance, they are effectively auto-placed into the WCC semifinals every year. They’ve taken an outsized portion of NCAA Tournament money (rightfully so) and are kings of the WCC, lording over the league on the court but also in the decision-making rooms as well. That has its perks, no doubt. Would the Pac-12 put Gonzaga in a position to be more profitable? Would it be willing to give up its leverage to move to a conference league that expects to be higher-profile? Nobody knows yet; it would be on the Pac-12 to convince Gonzaga.

But as I’ve written and said a few times before, Few (61) understandably wants to leave Gonzaga in the best possible position when he retires. That retirement could be two years away, it could be eight years away. Would staying in the WCC keep Gonzaga’s annual bid for national relevance in a better spot than in the Pac-12?

I’m not trying to pull apart the WCC. The environs of conference realignment are harsh and high stakes. What been done to college sports’ traditions and norms in the past few years (and even before that) is dispiriting on many levels. Consolidation of powers is bringing about a lot of bad consequences, some of which won’t be realized in competitive or financial ways until we reach 2030 or so. 

And we still don’t know what the NCAA landscape is going to look like in terms of regulations and revenue sharing … and we might not have those answers for at least a year. Making big changes like this without having those answers is a big leap of faith. There’s no telling how much money the new Pac-12 will get in a media rights deal, and whether Gonzaga would actually stand to make more money in this league vs. what it has going for it in the WCC. 

As one WCC source put it to me: “It’s risky.”

But there is the other end of this: A future with a league that would likely power-rate higher than the WCC. The Pac-12 is going to get at least another two, but maybe three or four schools with big football ambitions looking for a fresh start. Memphis (would Memphis do this??) would be a jolt of an addition, but even Memphis isn’t on Gonzaga’s level in basketball. It’s not close, really. If you get Gonzaga, you have two programs (GU, San Diego State) that played for a national title in the past four seasons. If you get Gonzaga, you change the outlook and future of your conference. You become more than just a Group of Six conference. The Pac-12 is back, and that’s ultimately a good thing for college sports. But without at least one true national power in hoops, its profile and potential can only reach so far. There’s only one school that can bring it to a higher level.

Go get Gonzaga.