Tag: San Diego State

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark is open to more expansion

The Big 12 has sent signals that San Diego State isn’t part of its plans. Is that a smokescreen?

At Big 12 media day, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark addressed a lot of topics. Each conference media day gathering, in this complicated and fluid world of college sports realignment, is full of news about television deals, changing conference memberships, and what the future holds for that particular conference. Commissioners need to inform their schools and their constituencies that they are improving the bottom line and the product, satisfying athletic departments and fan bases alike.

Yormark, who is reveling in the additions of BYU, Cincinnati, UCF, and Houston, said at Big 12 media day that he is still open to more expansion. That door has not been closed.

The obvious follow-up question: In which direction might the Big 12 consider expansion? Dennis Dodd, who has well-placed sources in the Big 12 and regularly picks up (and floats) the leaks which come from people sympathetic to the Big 12, has reported that San Diego State is not part of the Big 12’s expansion plans. Is this a smokescreen or a real inclination on the part of the Big 12?

If it’s a real inclination, the discussion surrounding the Big 12 might shift to Connecticut (interestingly enough, San Diego State’s opponent in the most recent college basketball national championship game). Memphis and SMU are also intriguing potential options for the Big 12. Keep in mind that Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff has visited the SMU campus and talked to university administrators.

All of this reinforces the point that the Pac-12 leaves the door open to more negative scenarios as long as its media rights deal remains unfinalized. In this vacuum, the potential remains for the Big 12 to swoop in and pluck SMU from the Pac-12, something which could undermine a possible Pac-12 media rights deal.

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There might be a way for San Diego State, Mountain West to part amicably

What seems on the surface to be an amateur-hour clown show could actually be the solution to the #Aztecs’ situation.

The San Diego State-Mountain West soap opera took another turn on Monday. This twisting, turning theater of the absurd just gets weirder the more it continues.

You know that San Diego State sent a letter to the Mountain West on June 13 in which it stated that it was not formally asking to leave the conference but was considering its options in realignment and wanted more time to make its decision. San Diego State, if it left the Mountain West by June 30, would have been on the hook for $16.5 million in exit fees. If it left the conference after June 30, that figure would roughly double to $34 million.

The suspense attached to SDSU’s situation flowed from the Pac-12’s lingering inability to finalize its new media rights deal, which industry experts say will be done by July 21, which is Pac-12 media day. The general point of agreement among a lot of commentators was that San Diego State wanted to wait for the Pac-12 to finalize its deal and then extend an invitation.

The Pac-12 still has not finalized its deal, however. Meanwhile, the June 30 deadline came and went. San Diego State said on June 30 that it intended to remain in the Mountain West for the time being.

So, SDSU will stay in the Mountain West, right? The Aztecs aren’t going to leave now, in July, because that would mean the $34 million exit fee instead of the $16.5 million fee. The Aztecs have said they can’t afford to pay the $34 million (double) fee.

The latest news in this saga is that the Mountain West isn’t accepting San Diego State’s June 30 declaration that it is staying in the conference. The Mountain West is treating the earlier June 13 letter as a formal declaration of departure from the conference.

Say what?

That’s right: A letter SDSU said was just exploratory and not an official declaration of departure is being viewed as a true statement of departure by the Mountain West. On the surface, it seems like a huge disagreement and an irreparable situation.

Yet, from this clouded picture of disagreement and mixed signals could come the solution all parties can agree with.

If San Diego State thinks it hasn’t left the Mountain West and should owe zero in exit fees (because it hasn’t exited, in its own view of the situation), but the Mountain West thinks San Diego State has left and should owe $16.5 million in exit fees (because the June 13 letter was before the June 30 deadline).

You will note that the Mountain West is not asking for the double exit fee of $34 million.

San Diego State could simply say, “We don’t think we left the Mountain West, but hey, if you (the Mountain West) think we’ve left, we’ll just wait for the Pac-12 to finalize its media deal. Then we’ll get an invitation. Then we’ll join the Pac-12. Then we’ll happily pay the $16.5 million exit fee.”

San Diego State leaves but doesn’t pay the maximum exit fee.

The Mountain West gets an exit fee and yet doesn’t seem like the bad guy in all of this.

Both sides save face and can move on without costly litigation.

Sounds like a win-win.

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Tyson Degenhart Talks About His Expectations For Boise State

A feature story on Boise State forward Tyson Degenhart.

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Tyson Degenhart Talks About His Expectations For Boise State

An Interview With Boise State Forward Tyson Degenhart

Contact/Follow @Michaelbraydaly & @MWCwire

Degenhart discussed his previous two seasons and his expectations for next season at Boise State

Since Boise State forward Tyson Degenhart joined the program in 2021, he emerged as a team leader and one of the top players in the Mountain West. As Degenhart enters his junior season, he is aiming for another successful season at Boise State.

Degenhart recently sat down with the Mountain West Wire for an interview about his recruitment process, previous two seasons, expectations, and more. Growing up in Washington state, Degenhart stood out as one of the best players in the region. By playing AAU basketball in elementary school with Boise State head coach Leon Rice’s son, Kade Rice, Degenhart formed an early connection with Boise State.

At a basketball camp prior to his junior year of high school, Boise State offered a scholarship to Degenhart. Ultimately, Degenhart committed to Boise State. When asked about his relationship with Coach Rice, Degenhart praised his head coach.

“He’s just a great dude to be around. He totally understands the players’ side of things, while also understanding the coaches’ side of things,” Degenhart said. “He’s been a great guy to be at the helm of our program, and a great guy anyone would want to play for.”

Boise State’s coaching staff also received praise from Degenhart for their offseason work. This offseason, Rice has been away from the program while he is working as an assistant coach for the USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Cup Team in Hungary. Boise State assistants Mike Burns and Tim Duryea have led the team through offseason workouts.

Based on the last two seasons, Degenhart has been successful playing for Rice and Boise State. Last season, Degenhart was the team’s scoring leader with 14.1 points per game. Degenhart was an All-Mountain West First Team selection in 2022-2023. He spoke about his improvements as a sophomore:

“I played a lot better in the post,” Degenhart said. “Just adding that to my game when I posted up, I knew I could score one way or another, whether it was me scoring or kicking it out to a teammate. That has just really helped our offense with such great shooters like [Marcus Shaver Jr.], Chibuzo [Agbo], Max [Rice], and Naje [Smith].”

The Broncos finished the 2022-2023 campaign with a 24-10 record and reached the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year. Boise State had an early exit in the NCAA Tournament with a loss to Northwestern. In the same tournament, fellow Mountain West school, San Diego State, reached the Final Four and national championship for the first time in program history. Degenhart was asked about watching San Diego State represent the conference throughout the tournament.

“It wasn’t necessarily a surprise [to see San Diego State go on a tournament run], but it was one of those things that was super cool for our conference to have a team that we play against twice a year to make it to the national championship game,” Degenhart said.

Degenhart complimented the success of San Diego State’s Darrion Trammell and Lamont Butler in the Elite 8 and Final Four. He highlighted San Diego State’s recent history under former head coach Steve Fisher and current head coach Brian Dutcher. The Broncos split the season series with the Aztecs last season.

For Boise State to return to the tournament for a third straight season and have similar success that San Diego State had, Degenhart will need to have another strong season. Degenhart outlined his personal goal for next season.

“My personal goal is to be Mountain West Player of the Year,” Degenhart said. “I was first-team last year and we still have a lot of great players in the league like Isaiah Stevens coming back, Lamont Butler, and Jaelen House. As long as I take care of business and help our team win, that could definitely be on the table.”

For next season, Degenhart’s role will slightly change. With the additions of transfer forwards O’Mar Stanley and Cam Martin, Degenhart is expecting to leave his position as the starting center and return to playing power forward in the starting lineup. As a power forward, Degenhart plans on expanding his mid-range game and working on his three-point shooting.

Boise State is returning several key players for the 2023-2024 season, and the team will be expected to compete for a Mountain West Championship. Degenhart believes that this team can make a postseason run.

“We are not going to cap anything, but we can make it to the Final Four, As a team, if we can get that first win out of the way and forget about us not winning a game in the tournament, we are a second weekend team. Everyone believes that.”

In addition to being a standout college basketball player, Degenhart recently added podcast host to his resume. He recently started “The Tyson Degenhart Show” where he interviews notable figures in Boise State Athletics. He partnered with Idaho Central Credit Union to start the show.

After his basketball career is over, Degenhart wants to transition to a career in broadcasting as a play-by-play announcer, color commentator, or host. Degenhart has been busy with preparing for the upcoming regular season and pursuing interests outside of basketball.

Before the end of the summer, Degenhart and Boise State will take a trip up to British Columbia to play three exhibition games against Trinity Western University, University of the Fraser Valley, and Thompson Rivers University in July and August. These three games will be played in Vancouver and Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada.

Finally, a logical answer to why the Pac-12 didn’t finalize a media deal by June 30

We were puzzled by the Pac-12’s apparent lack of urgency relative to the #Aztecs. @JohnCanzanoBFT gave us the answer we needed.

John Canzano cracked the code. He gave a good, logical, entirely reasonable explanation for why the Pac-12 did not finalize its media rights deal by June 30 to facilitate a San Diego State move to the conference.

The question was a puzzler to college sports industry insiders: Why wouldn’t the Pac-12 move to get its media rights deal done by June 30? After all, the Pac-12 needs to get the deal done by July 21 (Pac-12 media day), so why not push the calendar forward three weeks and include San Diego State in the fold? What could be so special about waiting three weeks to get this deal done? San Diego State wrote that letter to the Mountain West in mid-June. Didn’t that indicate the Aztecs wanted to move to the Pac-12?

A piece of this was clearly missing. Canzano provided it in his latest Substack column:

Of the Pac-12, Canzano wrote “it could be that they’ve discovered a financial advantage to waiting another year to invite two new members.”

Canzano continued:

“The College Football Playoff is expanding for the 2024 season. The new TV deal is going to bring a windfall to the conferences that participate. Is it possible the Pac-12 doesn’t want to split those first-year shares 12 ways vs. 10? That it’s waiting because doing so helps make up for the haircut they took in the Comcast overpayment fiasco?

“A veteran college administrator (not from the Pac-12) floated that theory to me on Friday as the news about San Diego State landed. He offered that being without Southern California as part of the Pac-12 for one football season wouldn’t kill you on the recruiting or TV-deal fronts.”

There we go. That makes sense. The Comcast overpayment mess cost Pac-10 schools (the 10 schools that will be members when USC and UCLA leave next year) several million dollars. Waiting a year to invite San Diego State means that 2024 media rights revenues will be split 10 ways instead of 12, which will add a little more money to each of those Pac-10 schools and cushion the blow of the Comcast problem. Then the conference can bring in SDSU in the 2025-2026 college sports cycle and add the inventory it needs to reach the desired price point.

That’s the answer we were looking for. Thank you, John Canzano. This is the likely (not guaranteed) outcome of the San Diego State saga. The Aztecs will save those exit fees but will wait another year and eventually bolt. Same for SMU.

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REPORT: San Diego State will not exit Mountain West (at least not by June 30)

The #Aztecs have reportedly (per ESPN’s Pete Thamel) chosen to stay in the Mountain West … but what’s the next move here?

Everyone wondered if it would happen. It did not happen — not by the June 30 deadline, at least.

San Diego State University has, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN, chosen to stay in the Mountain West Conference instead of leaving before the midnight (Mountain time) deadline on Friday, June 30. The Aztecs were on the hook for an extra $17.5 million if they did not leave the Mountain West before the deadline but then left after June 30. Presumably, the school wants to not only avoid that larger exit fee, but also the base exit fee.

San Diego State would have needed to pay a $16.5 million exit fee for leaving the Mountain West by June 30. That fee was believed to be at or near $34 million if the Aztecs make a decision to leave after the June 30 deadline.

San Diego State is doing something normal in the industry, as opposed to leaving one conference without having a formal invitation from another conference. SDSU was not invited to the Pac-12 (at least not by June 30) because the conference and commissioner George Kliavkoff have not yet finalized a media rights deal. The Pac-12 had to secure that package and consider the value of SMU in the equation before it extended San Diego State an invitation … or at least, that’s the prevailing thought in the industry.

We have to wait and see if the Pac-12 media rights deal, once it is eventually agreed to, will gain a price point which will satisfy current Pac-12 members, and if that rights deal has details and clauses which shed more light on why San Diego State has chosen — for now — to stay in the Mountain West.

Stay tuned.

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San Diego State needs to endure a little inconvenience instead of paying over $17.5 million

We talked to @MarkRogersTV at the @VoiceOfCFB about the SDSU-Mountain West divorce and the endgame involving a possible move to the #Pac12.

Let’s do some simple math: San Diego State would owe the Mountain West Conference a $16.5 million exit fee if it leaves by June 30. If the Aztecs don’t meet that deadline and leave after June 30, they would owe close to $34 million total, over $17 million more than what they would owe if they make the June 30 deadline.

To no one’s surprise, the Mountain West rejected San Diego State’s plea for an extension of that June 30 deadline. This was reported on Monday by ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

San Diego State obviously wants to avoid a public relations (optics) hit. SDSU would like to leave the Mountain West and announce a move to the Pac-12 within a few hours of that official divorce, if not concurrently. San Diego State doesn’t want to leave the Mountain West and then wait weeks to finally latch onto a new conference. That desire is understandable.

However: If the school is worried about a multiple-week or multiple-month delay, the alternative is that if it waits into the month of July to formally leave the Mountain West, it will owe that extra $17.5 million.

So, which is the bigger concern for SDSU: a few weeks, maybe one month, of temporary inconvenience and discomfort, or — on the other hand — paying $34 million instead of $16.5 million?

The answer seems pretty clear from this or any other vantage point.

The only way San Diego State’s interests are best served by waiting past June 30 is if it has solid information indicating that the Pac-12 media rights deal is nowhere near an agreeable price point, and the Big 12 is actually not that interested in grabbing the Aztecs.

We can debate the first item — whether the Pac-12 media deal will reach a satisfactory price point — but on the second point, it’s pretty clear the Big 12 would love to scoop up the Aztecs if the Pac-12 fumbles the bag.

San Diego State administrators should be on the phone with the Pac-12 right now, insisting that this deal get finalized. Then the divorce with the Mountain West can proceed, followed by the marriage with the Pac-12.

We discussed all this with Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football. Our talk with Mark begins at the 47-minute mark of the video:

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It’s time for San Diego State and the Pac-12 to do what they want

The #Aztecs can just get on with it and leave the Mountain West. The #Pac12 can just get on with it and finalize its media deal.

San Diego State University and the Pac-12 Conference want each other. At least, that is and has been the indication for several months.

San Diego State would love to move up from the Mountain West, a Group of Five league, to the Pac-12, a Power Five conference. The Pac-12, for its part, wants to maintain a presence in Southern California. The conference has expressed optimism that it can fetch a competitive price point for its new round of media rights deals based on having the added inventory provided by both San Diego State and SMU, the two schools it has heavily courted.

Now, however, the Mountain West is refusing to give San Diego State an extension on its timeline for leaving the conference without paying added exit fees beyond what it already owes. The current deadline is June 30. San Diego State would pay close to $17 million in additional exit penalties if it doesn’t leave the Mountain West by then.

Why hasn’t SDSU already left? The Pac-12 hasn’t extended an offer to join the conference. Why hasn’t the Pac-12 extended an offer? Because it hasn’t finalized its media rights deal.

If San Diego State wants out of the Mountain West, it shouldn’t feel the need to wait beyond June 30. If the Pac-12 is confident that San Diego State will deliver a good media rights deal, what is the remaining holdup at this point?

Yes, SDSU would like to formally leave the Mountain West and then immediately announce its membership in the Pac-12. We can see and appreciate that desire to not be “unaffiliated” for even a few days or hours. However, is there any doubt SDSU would find a Power Five conference home? The optics might not be ideal, but the Aztecs should not be worried that they will somehow be left stranded. They will find a good home. They can leave the Mountain West and know they’ll land safety, even if the process is awkward.

The Pac-12 owes it to San Diego State to finalize this media rights deal before June 30 so that the Aztecs — and then, presumably, SMU — can join up and we can all move on with our lives.

This doesn’t have to be prolonged any more than absolutely necessary.

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REPORT: Mountain West won’t grant San Diego State an extension

The #Aztecs wanted more time to organize their departure from the conference, but the MWC isn’t buying it. Drama-rama!

This is not surprising. The Mountain West Conference is putting its foot down.

You probably know by now that San Diego State sent a letter to the Mountain West earlier in June, requesting an extension for its desired departure from the conference. The extension relates to a June 30 date by which San Diego State must leave or pay an added exit fee of close to $17 million. San Diego State wants more time to arrange its exit from the Mountain West, probably because the Pac-12 hasn’t yet finalized a media rights deal.

The Mountain West is not going to accommodate San Diego State in that regard.

Pete Thamel of ESPN reported on Monday that the Mountain West will not grant San Diego State any such extension. This move, which should not come as a shock to anyone, puts more pressure on San Diego State to act quickly — by June 30 — to avoid the hefty additional exit fee.

San Diego State claims that its letter earlier in June was not a formal resignation from the Mountain West Conference, but according to Thamel’s Monday report, the MWC is treating San Diego State’s letter as a formal notice of departure.

One obvious point to make, among many others, is why San Diego State waited until the middle of June to send that first letter. Yes, the Aztecs are trying to buy extra time. That much is clear. However, sending a letter earlier in the year rather than just a few weeks before the June 30 deadline might have given the Mountain West more time to consider its future. The relatively late notice might have rubbed conference officials the wrong way.

At any rate, San Diego State will definitely have to do something before June 30, since no one in the college sports industry thinks the Aztecs will want to pay $17-18 million more than what they will already owe the Mountain West.

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Could there be a Pac-11 with only San Diego State and not SMU?

Insiders think the Pac-12 adding just one member but not two is highly unlikely. San Diego State and SMU would probably be a package deal.

There is no hard-and-fast rule saying that if a conference expands (or contracts) to 11 members, it has to add a 12th member. In the 2022-2023 college sports cycle (the one which will end on June 30), the American Athletic Conference has had 11 members.

(For the record, those members were UCF, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, South Florida, SMU, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, and Wichita State. UCF, Cincinnati and Houston will compete in the Big 12 in the 2023-2024 cycle which begins on July 1 and includes the 2023 college football season.)

However, having 12 teams instead of 11 makes scheduling easier in various sports and reduces various logistical challenges. In the Pac-12’s case, it would add television money.

John Canzano, at his Substack, talked to sources in the Pac-12 and at SMU. Here’s his latest work on the San Diego State-SMU situation:

“Would the Pac-12 add San Diego State via expansion but not SMU? Maybe, but I find it increasingly unlikely. A source on campus at the Dallas-based institution told me the Pac-12 continued to engage with SMU after the Kliavkoff visit,” Canzano reported.

“Unless I am missing something, the media-rights range I keep hearing doesn’t work without the DFW television households included. Also, SMU is so intensely motivated to join that it would definitely join at a discount.

“As one well-placed source at SMU told me on Friday morning: ‘My sense continues to be that we will be included if they expand.’”

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Pac-12 will be badly stung if it doesn’t land San Diego State and SMU

We’re not predicting whether the #Pac12 will actually gain the #Aztecs and #SMU, but we can say it will be a big defeat if the league can’t pull it off.

The realignment saga continues in the second half of June, in the final days of both the fiscal year and the college sports cycle which ends alongside it. June 30 is the date by which San Diego State needs to leave the Mountain West or pay an exit fee of nearly $16 million more than what it would owe the conference.

Everyone in the college sports world is waiting to see how this game of high-stakes poker plays out. The smart money says it’s more likely than not that San Diego State and SMU will join the Pac-12, but what should logically happen is not what regularly happens. This is college sports, after all.

It’s not a done deal until it’s actually done. We’ll hold off on making specific predictions, though we obviously have our own sense of what is likely and what isn’t.

What we can say is that if the Pac-12 can’t actually secure San Diego State and SMU, it won’t only feel like a defeat for George Kliavkoff and the Pac-12 CEO Group; it will indeed be a defeat.

John Canzano offered this detail at his Substack:

“Nobody I spoke with believes the Pac-12 can eclipse a $32 million-per-school average distribution without including both San Diego State and SMU,” Canzano wrote.

“The networks and streaming services are looking for not only quality programming but quantity in terms of available games. The Pac-12 presidents might want to stay at 10 schools, but they need the inventory that a 12-team conference brings to get paid. That’s important for football as well as basketball.”

Keep in mind that, per Canzano’s reporting, the Pac-12 hasn’t vetted Boise State, Fresno State, or UNLV.

The Pac-12 has explored and gamed out a lot of scenarios. We have no idea if the Pac-12’s media rights deal will reach the target the conference is looking for, but we can say that if San Diego State and SMU aren’t in the conference, there’s no way the Pac-12 will reach or even come close to the price point it wants. The Pac-12 clearly thinks Boise State, Fresno State, and UNLV won’t be remotely as competitive in terms of media dollars as SDSU and SMU will be. All indications point to the Pac-12 being sold on the value of SDSU and SMU. Anything less — or anything else — would rate as a comparative disappointment and a real defeat for the conference on numerous levels.

It’s crunch time. Let’s see whether the Pac-12 brings in this duo or swings and misses.

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