Watching the Pac-10 lose the West…

[Digital Lobo]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/3...-lose-the-west

[FoKuZ]

Whoever that idiot writer is, cracks me up... And TCU to the BIG EAST HUH? ROFL WOW I thought he was gonna say UNM to the SEC
He needs to be fired just because LOL

Im pretty sure the MWC is working behind closed doors to secure and strengthen the the MWC.. I mean granted it is the same higher ups that brought us the wonderful Mountain Channel and all the national publicity and recognition their station has brought us OR NOT lol...

But I gotta have faith their smart enough to be talking to BSU, UTEP Gonzaga while fighting to hold grip on BYU, Utah, and TCU

With them added and reetaining who we have the MWC becomes Auto bid BCS I think????

And not only that Makes the MWC LEGIT

[loboray]

Slam the Mountain all you want, but Lobo fans around the country have seen their team more this year than any year in the history of the program. Ten times more than the Big monday days of lthe 10:00 starting times on ESPN. Find a new subject to beat down. Beating up the MTN is getting old.

[FoKuZ]

Slam the Mountain all you want, but Lobo fans around the country have seen their team more this year than any year in the history of the program. Ten times more than the Big monday days of lthe 10:00 starting times on ESPN. Find a new subject to beat down. Beating up the MTN is getting old.

UMMMMM Thats a big negative!!!!!

And even if it were true, WHICH ITS NOT.... It has hurt the entire league NATIONALLY!!!

[kingisjim]

Watching the Pac-10 lose the West…

by Joshua Wikler Joshua Wikler

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Contributor Written on March 09, 2010

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images
Vote Now! - Author Poll

Right now, which is the better conference when considering the football and basketball programs?

• Pac-10
• Mountain West

vote to see results
As the NCAA Selection Committee prepares to finalize their brackets on Sunday night, the scene will shift from the conference tournaments to the Big Dance, but we should all be reminded that this season -above any others in recent memory- has seen a shift in power out West, one that members of the Pacific-10 conference should be mindful.
The Mountain West Conference (MWC) and the West Coast Conference (WCC) currently stake more claims at NCAA berths than the Pac-10. Those aren’t combined figures, individually the two conferences have better outlooks on Selection Sunday than the Pac-10.
The MWC has four teams (New Mexico, BYU, UNLV, San Diego State) that have legitimate claims at the NCAA tournament. The WCC will get two in the dance after Saint Mary’s beat Gonzaga in the conference championship,
The Mountain West begins tournament play in Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center on Wednesday. BYU and New Mexico are locks to make the tourney. UNLV is close to a lock as long as there aren’t too many bubble busters this year. If the Rebels can take down Utah in their first round game (something they haven’t done this year, losing in Vegas and in Salt Lake), they should all but punch their ticket. SDSU probably has some more work to do, but a deep run into the MWC tourney should solidify their resumé for the selection committee. Four teams in the dance is a real possibility for the Mountain West.
The West Coast Conference also played their tournament in Las Vegas, at The Orleans Arena. Saint Mary’s blew Gonzaga out of the arena and into The Orleans’ casino, cruising to a 81-62 win. The Gaels had been 0-2 against Gonzaga this year. The Zags are sure to get an at-large bid and Saint Mary’s will not have to sweat it out as a bubble team this year, although their resumé would have been pretty impressive.
How about the Pac-10? Most experts believe that the University of California will be in after winning the conference’s regular season title, going 13-5. Washington and Arizona State are firmly on the bubble, making for great drama in the conference tournament this week. The conference had a down year and getting only one team (if Cal wins the Pac-10 tourney) is a real possibility, especially if at-large bids continue to be stolen by schools like Saint Mary’s.
The one thing the Pac-10 has going for it is that their top three teams have ended the regular season on streaks. Cal won seven of their last eight, UW has won four in a row and ASU was victorious in six of their last seven. It’s no secret that the selection committee likes schools that are playing their best ball in March, but the stage has been set to see a power conference get just their tournament champion in the dance like most mid-majors are used to every year.
However, one down year does not a crisis make, right? Think again. The MWC in particular has finally begun to steal the western showcase as the premier conference in the last few years.
This year’s edition of the Pac-10 went 4-5 against the MWC and 6-6 against the WCC. Modest numbers for the lesser conferences and embarrassing for the Pac-10, one of the premier conferences in the country. Many of these games were in Pac-10 arenas, as big schools continue to be weary when it comes to going into a rabid environment as a favorite against a potential giant killer.
Need more evidence to show that the Pac-10 is no longer the dominant force in Western college basketball? Check the rankings. Currently the MWC has two teams ranked: BYU (#15 in the AP Poll/#14 in ESPN’s Coaches Poll) and New Mexico (#8 in both polls). UNLV is receiving votes in the Coaches Poll. The WCC’s Gonzaga is ranked #18 in the AP Poll and #14 in the Coaches Poll. Saint Mary’s is receiving votes in the Coaches Poll.
The Pac-10? The conference has zero teams in the top 25 in both polls and only one team (Cal) is receiving votes. Even the WAC (Western Athletic Conference) has Utah State receiving more votes in both polls than the Pac-10’s Cal Golden Bears.
Clearly, better basketball is being played in the lesser conferences out west than in the Pac-10. ESPN’s bracketologist, Joe Lunardi has four MWC teams in the NCAA tournament, two in from the WCC and two in from the Pac-10 with Cal and ASU making the cut, though ASU is listed as one of the last squads in. Washington is among Lunardi’s first four out of the dance.
The news gets even worse when one starts talking about the Pac-10 and the Mountain West in college football. In 2009, three MWC teams finished in the top 25 of the AP Poll. Texas Christian University finished ranked #6, BYU earned a #12 ranking and Utah finished at #18. The Pac-10 had only two teams in the final poll, with Oregon ranked #11 and USC finishing at #23.
In the last two years, the MWC has done exceptionally in head-to-head matchups against Pac-10 schools. In 2008, the MWC dominated the Pac-10, going 6-1 in the regular season and losing in the only bowl game the conferences played against one another (an Arizona win over BYU). In 2009, the MWC went 2-3 against the Pac-10 with both wins coming in bowl games.
Combine the last two years and the MWC can boast a 8-5 record against the Pac-10 in football, including a 2-1 record in head-to-head matchups in bowl games.
Is it time for the Pac-10 to panic? Probably not. It’s unlikely that historically strong basketball programs like UCLA and Arizona won’t recover with strong recruiting and superior coaching. In football, no one thinks USC will stay down for long and certainly programs like Oregon, Washington and Stanford are strong teams that are on the up-and-up.
However, the success of the Mountain West should not be ignored as the conference is making a bid to be the second major conference from the west.
Is it any wonder that the Pac-10 is talking about expansion? Furthermore, if the conference does add more schools, some of the teams being mentioned include MWC members Utah, BYU, San Diego State, Colorado State and UNLV.
If you can beat ‘em, join ‘em (or in this case, invite them to join you).

Here is the article for people who can't open links at work.

[LoboCubs23]

UMMMMM Thats a big negative!!!!!

And even if it were true, WHICH ITS NOT.... It has hurt the entire league NATIONALLY!!!

Whats not true about it? In the big Monday days we would see some of the road games in very poor production on KRQE, and later My50, then we would have 1-3 games on big Monday, and then the home games would be tape delayed on Q13 (again in horrible production) until 10:30. (total of probably 8 -12 live games a year 2-3 of which were on at 10:00 at night) With the Mountain package I see all the games in decent production (even better when they do HD Im sure) we get analysts, studio shows, and exposure. The simple fact that our recruiting and the caliber of recruiting around the league has improved so much cannot be a simple coincidence. Over all the Mountain is good for the fans, and great for recruiting at least in basketball, and the evidence proves this I would much rather see the 30 live games I have seen thus far then the 8-12 I was getting in the past. We may not all like it, but its much better then what we had, and Im pretty sure its here to stay so get over it already!

[Lobodawg92]

Slam the Mountain all you want, but Lobo fans around the country have seen their team more this year than any year in the history of the program. Ten times more than the Big monday days of lthe 10:00 starting times on ESPN. Find a new subject to beat down. Beating up the MTN is getting old.

I also think it helps with recruiting. Heck, the parents get to watch a ton of their kids games, and be in a conference that competes with about anyone!

[FoKuZ]

Whats not true about it? In the big Monday days we would see some of the road games in very poor production on KRQE, and later My50, then we would have 1-3 games on big Monday, and then the home games would be tape delayed on Q13 (again in horrible production) until 10:30. (total of probably 8 -12 live games a year 2-3 of which were on at 10:00 at night) With the Mountain package I see all the games in decent production (even better when they do HD Im sure) we get analysts, studio shows, and exposure. The simple fact that our recruiting and the caliber of recruiting around the league has improved so much cannot be a simple coincidence. Over all the Mountain is good for the fans, and great for recruiting at least in basketball, and the evidence proves this I would much rather see the 30 live games I have seen thus far then the 8-12 I was getting in the past. We may not all like it, but its much better then what we had, and Im pretty sure its here to stay so get over it already!

Well simply put like this... Its not about YOU, you AND YOU.... Its about Lobo fans as a whole NOT being able to see the games. Not EVERY Lobos fan or MWC fan for that matter have access to the Mountain channel... Before MTN channel ESPN would televise what? 3-5 Lobos games NATIONALLY? For the whole world to see? And with theMountain how many games get televised nationally? How many People actually get to see the MTN channel...

Im pretty sure LESS Lobos fans have seen games this yr due to not having that network..

[Lobodawg92]

UMMMMM Thats a big negative!!!!!

And even if it were true, WHICH ITS NOT.... It has hurt the entire league NATIONALLY!!!

I am not so sure I agree that it has hurt the entire league Nationally. We were not being watched much anyway. Now we are at least accessible, whereas, we seldome were before. Vs on the Dish, the MTN on Direct or Comcast in many areas, and the MTN covers our football and ladies games as well. I think the MTN is a big plus actually, and not just for us local folk, but for those in other areas as well. Kinda frustrating with Direct not having Versus right now, but still better than it was imho.

[LoboCubs23]

Well simply put like this... Its not about YOU, you AND YOU.... Its about Lobo fans as a whole NOT being able to see the games. Not EVERY Lobos fan or MWC fan for that matter have access to the Mountain channel... Before MTN channel ESPN would televise what? 3-5 Lobos games NATIONALLY? For the whole world to see? And with theMountain how many games get televised nationally? How many People actually get to see the MTN channel...

Im pretty sure LESS Lobos fans have seen games this yr due to not having that network..

Im pretty sure your wrong. More fans have seen more games this year then in the past. Comcast has it, Direct TV has it, those are the two biggest providers... If you dont have one of those two then make a choice and get one of them, thats what I did. Its not that expensive. Sure the Mountain doesnt get to as many homes as ESPN does, but it get to the homes it does get to are more than likely homes that are dedicated to the Mountain West, and besides that Im sure MOST not just SOME of us, and not just me, that get the Mountain appreciate that we get the coverage we get, with someone a little more professional then Mike Powers doing the play by play, and a production that doesnt miss all the big shots because the camera man is checking out the cheerleaders. Like I said if you dont have the Mountain get it, if you cant, then go to a bar that has it, because its going to be around and it helps our league, recruiting is proof in the pudding and the increase in quality of recruits correlates almost directly to the creation of the network... its not going anywhere so just get on board.

[Loboral]

I have to agree, I live in the DC area and though the Mtn is only pretty much covered in the Mountain West veiwing area, if it is televised anywhere, it will be possible to watch somewhere(even if is streamed or local sportsbar). Whereas on ESPN we might get on two or three times in a year and a handful of local channel games which would be hard for anyone to catch, with the Mtn just about every game is televised. It has gotten better every year and with the conference getting more notoriety who knows maybe soon the mountain will be nationwide.

[loboray]

In addition to the MTN, with CBS-C and Versus we get more national coverage than we ever did on ESPN. CBS-C gives us about the same coverage we got on ESPN and it is national coverage. We have a Lair member from
Sacramemto who posted that he watched 20+ games this year. So it is true that we have more coverage than ever. Anyway it is what it is and if you have complaints let the league office know what they are.

[KingNoodles]

The big difference is that we are destination viewing now, one has to have the right channels but most systems have only some of the right channels, or go somewhere where they have the right channel, know they have the right channel, know how to find the right channel, and ask for it and then hope no one there objects to losing ESPN or ESPN 2, so you only get already Lobos or MWC fans who are going to make a real effort but not get any neutrals.

Whereas before I heard many times traveling that people watched the Lobos or the other conference teams later, sports fans then were more more familiar and knowledgeable about us and other conference teams and the top players.

I know ESPN was very dismissive and offered little and frankly personally I somewhat despise ESPN, but I think we got locked into way too long a deal for too little money for promises that are still left unfulfilled and we seemingly don't stand up to fight the shortcomings. Yes the deal then was more than ESPN offered but over the years it has begun to really pale to what other conference are getting in both cash and real exposure.

Not sure what the answer is at this point, but if they are not going to get together with all the cable/satellite companies or allow more freedom for local broadcasting and selling off or showcasing marques games I wonder if it will become viable to create our own MWC network and sell off packages in shorter terms to multiple outlets and marque games individually???

[FoKuZ]

The big difference is that we are destination viewing now, one has to have the right channels but most systems have only some of the right channels, or go somewhere where they have the right channel, know they have the right channel, know how to find the right channel, and ask for it and then hope no one there objects to losing ESPN or ESPN 2, so you only get already Lobos or MWC fans who are going to make a real effort but not get any neutrals.

Whereas before I heard many times traveling that people watched the Lobos or the other conference teams later, sports fans then were more more familiar and knowledgeable about us and other conference teams and the top players.

I know ESPN was very dismissive and offered little and frankly personally I somewhat despise ESPN, but I think we got locked into way too long a deal for too little money for promises that are still left unfulfilled and we seemingly don't stand up to fight the shortcomings. Yes the deal then was more than ESPN offered but over the years it has begun to really pale to what other conference are getting in both cash and real exposure.

Not sure what the answer is at this point, but if they are not going to get together with all the cable/satellite companies or allow more freedom for local broadcasting and selling off or showcasing marques games I wonder if it will become viable to create our own MWC network and sell off packages in shorter terms to multiple outlets and marque games individually???

BINGO

You said it better than me.... Guess thats kinda my point

[lobodude]

I think the problem is not so much the networks with whom we have deals but the kind of deals we have. The deals should have been for shorter terms and more flexible for the conference to possibly offer a game or two or three to ESPN (if ESPN was at all interested. This year would have been the first year that ESPN might possibly show any interest at all.). And now that the conference is much better as a whole, we find ourselves locked into long-term deals. The Versus deal is definitely hurting right now, -- Versus should not be getting so many of our best games -- but who knew at the time that Versus and DirecTV would be battling years later and that Versus would be so difficult to get?

--- One thing to keep in mind, and please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the old CSTV deal, now that CBS turned it into CBS-CS, mean that the main CBS network has the rights to least some of our games? Is CBS not showing MWC games because Versus gets the best ones? Or are we overestimating the appeal of the Mountain West? (As I noted once, look at how much coverage the WAC gets on ESPN, and that's a good idea of how much coverage we would be getting, because ESPN is not going to move a single BCS conference game to show us. I don't even have cable, so someone come on here and tell us whether the WAC is getting tons more coverage than the Lobos.)

[SoCalLobo]

The only benefit of being with ESPN would have been ESPN360.com. We would be able to see the games not televised at least online. The MTN needs to do the same. But that most of the Lobo games can now be seen by anyone who wishes to get Directv is HUGE. It has got to have made recruiting easier too, I would think. If so, this will make the conference stronger and make our games more attractive nationally. Which will help our recruiting....

[loboray]

Here's the story from my perspective. CBS-C, which is who our contract is with gets first rights to televise. Versus which is owned by Comcast, is second in line. The MTN, is half owned and financed by CBS and Comcast. They are third in line. The contract length is what was required at the time to get the deal done. They offered about double what ESPN was offering for just 3 or so appearances a year for UNM on big monday at 10:00 local time. Midnight in the Eastern time zone. I have Comcast which I got when the Mountain was born so I would get alll the coverage. Yes, it is expensive, so we don't go to as many movies or eat out as much as we used to, but I get my Lobo fix in a steady diet. Would I want to go back to the crappy ESPN coverage?? Hell no.

[SoCalLobo]

Here's the story from my perspective. CBS-C, which is who our contract is with gets first rights to televise. Versus which is owned by Comcast, is second in line. The MTN, is half owned and financed by CBS and Comcast. They are third in line.

Then how is the championship game on Versus???

[loborick]

Wow, half the threads on here are the same arguments that have been made 100 times before. Does anyone have a new take on anything? Alford leaving, Hobson leaving, the mtn sucks...let's get original, people.

[Garishwolf]

Wow, half the threads on here are the same arguments that have been made 100 times before. Does anyone have a new take on anything? Alford leaving, Hobson leaving, the mtn sucks...let's get original, people.

RICK, bean missing you man, been hijacked by a bunch of theorists, thinking and writing the worst, untrue, un based kaka possible, they are really degrading the integrity of the board.