Why the PAC should invite Hawaii

[krindor]

Probably not as a full member, but a “half member” or “associate member” of the conference or a contractual scheduling agreement – whatever language you want to use

Imagine the PAC extends an invitation for the following to Hawaii

• Scheduling Agreement where 8 PAC teams will play @Hawaii every year
• Hawaii will receive 1/3rd the media rights (so say $8M-$10M on a $24M-$30M/yr/school deal)
• PAC will have rights to all (home) Hawaii games (both those 8 with PAC teams and any others Hawaii happens to play)

From the Hawaii perspective, it’s a huge win

• Money: They go from making $4M/yr (MWC) to making $8M+/yr. Plus they have (minimum) 8 home games against P5 opponents – nice for tickets/concessions and reduced travel costs
• Prestige/Visibility: Increased quality of competition and a better ‘in’ to potentially become a full member
• Other 4 games per year can fairly easily be filled, especially since they don’t NEED more home games (could even take away paycheck games for more $$$

From the PAC perspective, it’s likely also a win, mostly by taking advantage of the Hawaii rule (allows teams that play @Hawaii to schedule a 13th game)

• Money: They’re paying $8M to add (a minimum of) 8 extra games of inventory (plus they’d own whatever extra home games Hawaii schedules), so would likely make that up (and much more) in any negotiation
• Extra practice time: teams can’t officially start practice until 4 weeks before their first game – with 8 PAC teams now having a Week 0 game, that means an extra week of practice
• Visibility: With 8 PAC teams playing in Week 0, the PAC could dominate the viewership in that week with unopposed football and shine a spotlight on the conference to open the season.  For one week every college football fan would basically be watching a PAC game and every station would have almost nothing besides PAC games to show
• Recruiting: Would mean players get a trip to Hawaii regularly. People like going to Hawaii. Not huge, but a nice perk. More importantly, it would mean the only teams playing in Hawaii would be PAC teams so that would help PAC recruiting of Hawaii (and potentially other Polynesian islands)

[dystopiamembrane]

That’s a lot of words, but I support adding them to the mix.

[dystopiamembrane]

I’d love to have many of our former WAC mates back in the fold.

[NashvilleUte]

That makes way too much sense, what on earth are you thinking? We want the Dallas market! (Even though hardly anyone watches SMU) But, DALLAS! That will save the PAC! Not… A team all the way out in Texas all by themselves? Seriously, no. I’m sure they’re great people and a good school, but no.

Someone at one point, not necessarily here, but somewhere, someone floated the idea of pairing Boise State as a football only member with Gonzaga for other sports. Using Hawaii as you recommend as a football only member to pair with Gonzaga would make more sense and be much more valuable.

In addition to adding San Diego State, I think we’d be set (assuming something can ever come together for a media contract…) 🙄

[Roy Rangum]

I can see the appeal of Hawaii, but I’m not sure if the PAC is ready yet to concede on their academic standards, although if anything could make them concede on that point I think it’s the current situation we are in.

For SMU though, I think the appeal stems primarily from the fact that SMU has very wealthy alumni, and in the day and age of NIL, SMU has a lot of potential. And, getting a foot hold in Texas is not a bad thing either when it comes to recruiting.

[krindor]

Hawaii is an R1 research institution, with similar yearly R&D expenditures as Oregon St

Here’s where they fall by 2021 R&D Expenditures

1. Washington $1489M (#5 nationally – including non-P5 and non-FBS)
2. UCLA $1455M (#6 nationally)
3. Stanford $1274M (#9 nationally)
4. USC $956M (#28 nationally)
5. Cal $847M (#32 nationally)
6. Arizona $770M (#36 nationally)
7. Arizona St $677M (#42 nationally)
8. Utah $625M (#47 nationally)
9. Colorado $548M (#52 nationally)
10. Washington St $358M (#78 nationally)
11. Oregon St $277M (#94 nationally)
12. Hawaii $272M (#99 nationally)
13. Oregon $139M (#149 nationally)
14. San Diego St $108M (#164 nationally)
15. Southern Methodist $42M (#221 nationally)

[PhiladelphiaUte]

SMU may not draw a large television audience, but they did draw a larger one than Houston, Boston College, Duke, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Arizona, Arizona St, and Colorado.

[Utah]

It’s so interesting how so few people understand how the tv contracts work. 

SMU over Hawaii is a no brainer, if you understand how tv contracts pay out. 

[krindor]

I should clarify this isn’t an argument against SMU (from my end at least). I think Hawaii can make sense this way whether or not other teams are added.

If other teams add value, then we should add them. Hawaii is just unique with the Hawaii rule, so I think it’s possible to take advantage of that in a way that doesn’t apply to others

[Yergensen]

You serious Clark?

[krindor]

Deleted – was intended to be in response to a different post so has been relocated

[alexsmith]

I’d go to Utah @ Hawaii just for the trip!

[Charlie]

I like the idea if it is a football only thing. Time it with the bye to make it easier. They could play in the afternoon and be televised live in latter time slot in the US.

[krindor]

Yup, this would be a football-only scheduling agreement. Maybe they’d get access to PAC bowl games (albeit not the conference championship or Rose Bowl – similar to how it works for ND).

So they’d be independent in football with a scheduling agreement that pays well. And then stash the rest of their sports elsewhere.

[2008 National Champ]

From the Hawaii perspective, it’s a huge win

That’s really the only perspective that would view that proposal a win. 8 Pac teams agree to an extra “conference” road game every year? There is no benefit to anyone but Hawaii. They get the added prestige of being considered P5 equivalent, they get at least 2/3 of their games at home where every opponent has to cross at least 3 time zones, they can sell their local recruits on not needing to go anywhere to play big-time games because their friends and family can watch them at their home stadium. They’d probably even get a mainland recruiting bump out of the deal.

Travel isn’t cheap or easy. It’s not as simple as loading 60 players & staff on a plane. When one of the main reasons people are pointing to USC and UCLA potentially struggling when they get to the B1G is the amount of travel, why would you give that advantage to Hawaii?

[Author]

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