'It was different.' Gonzaga accepts invitation to newly formed Pac-12, ends 45-year tenure in WCC

Shortly after Gonzaga and its new athletic department joined the West Coast Conference in 1979, the school's longtime athletic director, Mike Roth, began to hear grumblings.

“There were years when members thought why is Gonzaga in the conference, are we good enough to be in the (WCC)?” said Roth, who returned to his alma mater in 1982 as a men's basketball assistant. “Of course, that changed and Gonzaga athletics was able to change the entire university.”

Over the past five decades, the nature of the questions surrounding Gonzaga's membership in the WCC also began to change.

Has Gonzaga, with its now globally recognized brand of men's basketball, overcome a conference that has struggled to keep pace on the court and invest as much as the Zags?

Will the risk of finally leaving the WCC outweigh the reward?

If such a move made sense, what would it look like?

After years of discussion, negotiation, and negotiation with several conferences — the Big East came first, then the Mountain West, followed by previous iterations of the Pac-12, and finally the Big 12 expressing interest — Gonzaga found a solution that made sense, and was right. In time, the newly formed Pac-12 accepted its invitation on Tuesday morning.

“I think it's well documented, we've talked to a lot of people. I think the bottom line is, it was different and it was different enough to make a move,” Gonzaga AD Chris Standiford told the Spokesman-Review on Tuesday. “The timing was fortunate for us in some ways, given the media market today where it was a few years ago. But as it became clear over the weekend, there's just a ton of alignment.

The conference shift marks one of Gonzaga's biggest — and final — strategies under outgoing president Thayne McCullough, who is retiring after the 2024-25 academic year.

“It happened very, very quickly,” McCulloh said. “We've started conversations in the very recent past and those conversations have moved quickly and they've accelerated quickly.”

Gonzaga will finish the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons in the WCC before officially joining the Pac-12 on July 1, 2026. Sponsored football since 1941, it brings its prestigious basketball program to a conference comprised mostly of large, football-playing public state institutions.

Currently, the conference has eight members, including traditional Pac-12 members Washington State and Oregon State, along with five Mountain West add-ons: Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Utah State.

The Pac-12 needs to secure at least one more football member to secure its status as an FBS conference, but there's reason to think Gonzaga could lure other targets based on its track record on the basketball court after advancing to nine straight Sweet 16s. Two national championship appearances out of last seven tournaments.

“Today represents an exciting milestone for the Pac-12 as we welcome another outstanding institution with a rich history of success to our league,” said Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gold, who has a history with Gonzaga during her tenure as the WCC's associate commissioner. .

Details regarding the financial components of Gonzaga's deal have not been made public in the Pac-12, but Standiford assured, “It's a good situation for us financially, without question.”

According to CBS Sports' Matt Norlander, even without a football program, the school is expected to receive “something close” to the full revenue share in the conference.

Standiford did not provide details on Gonzaga's purchase from the WCC, but indicated that the conference “has not created strong barriers to exit because they have great alignment in membership.” Joining the Big 12 requires a $500,000 exit fee from BYU to the WCC – which pales in comparison to the reported $17 million that each Mountain West school will leave for the Pac-12.

Because of its new partnership, Gonzaga will forfeit any “units” earned by qualifying for or winning the NCAA Tournament in each of the next two years.

“That's part of the difficulty in making this decision,” Standiford said. “But it's an innovative revenue distribution policy that we've helped go back to whenever we've done it in 2017 or so. So we signed up.”

The Pac-12's search for an eighth football member will resume, but it's possible the conference will also explore non-football candidates that could bolster its basketball presence.

According to ESPN's Kyle Bonagura, Pac-12 Gonzaga has held preliminary talks with longtime WCC rival Saint Mary's with future WCC program Grand Canyon, but will focus on securing at least one more football member before exploring the conference. Other possible basketball options.

Memphis recently rejected an offer from the Pac-12 to stay in the American Athletic Conference, but some comments from AD Ed Scott — who said “that the (Pac-12) deal wasn't a good deal” — suggest the university would do one if presented. Reconsider more profitable offers. The Tigers boast a strong football program and rich men's basketball history.

Other football options, such as Sacramento State, New Mexico State and Texas State, would be less attractive than Memphis. UConn, once considered a potential Pac-12 member for football only, will not join the conference, according to a report Tuesday in the Hartford Courant.

“That eighth, ninth, tenth, I don't know what it's going to be … I have full confidence in the membership that the team that ends up is going to make a really smart decision and we'll have a vote on it and we'll be able to go through that process with them and Our views will be heard,” Standiford said. “That was an important aspect of us.”

As it comes together, the reorganized Pac-12 could create the strongest midmajor basketball conference in the country, especially with the addition of Gonzaga, which has compiled a record of 716-143 in 25 seasons under coach Mark Few.

It also includes San Diego State, an NCAA Tournament regular that advanced to the national championship game in 2023, as well as Boise State, which has made five NCAA Tournament appearances and won two regular-season Mountain West championships under former Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice. . Washington State, Colorado State and Utah State have all earned at-large berths in the 2024 NCAA Tournament and won at least one game.

“My goal for us is to be the premier basketball league west of the Mississippi (River),” Rice told local reporters last week after initial reports linked Gonzaga to the Pac-12. “Let's go get the best basketball team, not just geographically, but across the country. I think we'll have the mindset as a conference to do that.”

For Gonzaga, it's not quite the same basketball upgrade as the Big 12 or Big East, but it signals a significant upgrade nonetheless.

In 2023-24, nine programs in the WCC finished the season with an average KenPom rating of 170, even with Gonzaga (No. 12) and Saint Mary's (No. 22) near the top. Meanwhile eight future Pac-12 schools finished the season with an average rating of 74.8, with five schools sitting in the top 50.

“I was just kidding about this. I was feeling pretty good about myself, being in two straight Sweet 16s,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher told the San Diego Union Tribune. “Now we've got someone in the league who has gone straight to number nine. Any basketball league where you say San Diego State and Gonzaga are part of it, it's a pretty impressive league.”