A Man Without A Country
San Diego State is your reigning national runner-up. It gets a lot worse from there.
Who here is willing to claim San Diego State? Show yourselves, cowards.
This should be a sought-after property. Beautiful campus, emerging college athletics market (after the Padres, the Aztecs are just about the only game left in town), just made the NCAA Championship game, the alma mater of Marshall Faulk, Tony Gwynn and Kawhi Leonard—three original, one-of-one athletes revered for their talents*. In NCAA terms, the Aztecs are on the come-up; not only should the Mountain West be fighting not to lose them, but the Big 12 and Pac 12 should be using everything at their disposal to land them as the conference expansion merry-go-round ramps up in earnest.
*—Also, Kawhi’s laugh.
That is not what’s happening.
I’m going to try to get the timeline right here, but it involves a lot of he-said, she-said. The gist is this: back in April, riding high off the miracle NCAA Tournament run, San Diego State fancied itself as the jewel for the next round of realignment. In fact, here’s Athletic Director John David Wicker inadvisably going on wax to The Athletic about just such a potential move.
“One or the other is going to happen,” athletic director John David Wicker says [of a move to the Big 12 or Pac 12]. “We’re excited for the opportunity, and we’ve done a lot of work to prepare for that.”
That sounds like a man rather certain about his future, to me.
The Mountain West appeared to take Wicker at his word, although not without an additional assist from… Wicker himself, or at least his office and that of his University, which sent a letter in mid-June informing the Mountain West (and the other MWC University presidents) of San Diego State’s intention to decamp for other pastures in 2024, as required by league by-laws. The lawyers got involved, monetary security was threatened, tale as old as time, but the end result, at least according to San Diego State, is that it remains a fully* committed** member of the Mountain West into 2024-25 and the great beyond, or until a better offer comes along.
*—Seriously
**—Why are you laughing?
At present, the Mountain West requires one-year notice before a school departs the conference. That would make the mid-June letter a notice that should take effect on July 1 next year, and the league is presently both holding the Aztecs to that date and withholding a not-insubstantial amount of money ($6.6 million, give or take) in revenue distribution to the school that the league believes should go into its coffers as the first installment of SDSU’s league exit fee (believed to be about $17 million if notice is given by at least the June 30 preceding the year of the move, and doubled if not). Are you confused or simply astounded by the level of petty on display? Me too.
In the interim, San Diego State has lost at least one suitor—allegedly, the Big 12 is no longer interested, likely at least in part because it expects to pick off a few members of the Pac 12 once its media rights deal is revealed to be half-USA Network, half-Telemundo and several zeros short of what the University presidents expect. The Aztecs could join the Pac 12, which is no doubt steeling itself for another long winter in a whole series of them—landing San Diego State would constitute not so much a boon as a lifeline for a Pac 12 that is not necessarily on life support yet but is being sure to tell the grandkids “I love you” at the end of each phone call.
Now—between the start of this boondoggle and its inevitable (very prosperous)(for the lawyers) end, someone is going to bend on something they don’t really want. San Diego State might go back to the MWC with its tail between its legs and sadness deep in its heart. The MWC might have to actually pay them the money San Diego State (according to the rights deals) deserves, at least for now. The Pac 12 could bang down a trio of Jameson’s ahead of last call, look up and realize it has to have San Diego State give it a ride home. A good compromise might leave everyone mad, but both conferences are likely going to do better in the “putting fancy lawyers on retainer for $750 an hour” department than little old San Diego State, the most likely culprit to feel the ultimate squeeze here.
Next week, the MWC’s university president’s get together to laugh over all this and determine San Diego State’s fate, at least in the terms of what the press release that inevitably comes from this meeting will “determine.” The lawyers are sniffing around or actively baying at one another’s ankles.
You’re probably wondering what’s in this for San Diego State. Why, with the bad publicity and weird optics of this whole situation, would the Aztecs not simply appear before the MWC on bended knee and beg for forgiveness and understanding?
The Mountain West’s current media rights deal runs through 2025-26, and both Fox and CBS have rights to football games. Each school receives $4 million annually as part of that deal. By comparison, Pac-12 schools receive about $30 million a year and Big 12 schools receive nearly $32 million per year.
There. That’s why.
The Pac 12’s media rights deal and whatever it looks like—and I’d believe anything from “ESPN and the family of networks” to “Your Uncle Mervin’s YouTube channel” at this point—is the next domino to fall. Until it does, it seems San Diego State is willing (or forced) into limbo. The banner and the beach might be all they’ve got going for them at the moment.