I’ve lived in a variety of places -- from D.C. to Chicago and across the Deep South -- but for all that movement and travel, I had spent zero time on the West Coast until this week.
An assignment to cover the Apple Cup sent me to Pullman, Wash., and Seattle over the past five days (more to come on that story). What I learned, as plenty reading this know, is the Pacific Northwest is absolutely spectacular. From the wheat fields of the Palouse to the hustle and bustle around Pike Place Market, it was just an amazing few days.
One of my favorite parts about this job is getting to go places I’ve never been. Washington was one of those -- and I’ll definitely be back.
Why Air Force has one of the more interesting realignment situations
Air Force might just be the belle of the realignment ball these days.
In case you missed it, the conference formerly known as the 2-Pac is now the 6-Pac after the Pac-12 approved the memberships of the Mountain West Conference quartet of Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State last week.
That leaves the MWC’s biggest remaining brands -- Air Force, UNLV and, to a lesser degree, Utah State -- in a wonky purgatory depending on whether the conference rebuilds or if those schools choose to move on. Of those, Air Force may be the most intriguing to track.
For one, Air Force is a valuable brand. It has wide appeal, and as a service academy, it has some stability in sticking with the highest levels of college athletics.
Beyond that, the school is a valuable revenue generator. Air Force ranked 57th nationally in revenue among public schools at just shy of $76.6 million during the 2023 fiscal year, per the USA Today college athletic department financial database. That was only slightly behind recent Power Four schools Houston ($78.1 million) and Cincinnati ($83.3 million) and well ahead of San Diego State ($65.9 million), UNLV ($64 million) and Memphis ($62.1 million).
The Falcons have three feasible options moving forward: 1) Stay in the MWC and rebuild; 2) hope the Pac-12 extends an invite their way; 3) join its fellow service academy compatriots in the American Athletic Conference.
That litany of choices means leverage.
What about the AAC?
Air Force brass has already had high-level conversations with AAC officials , sources confirmed to SBJ on Monday. That’s particularly relevant, as the Pac-12 is expected to target Memphis, Tulane, UTSA and Rice, among others, to get its membership up to eight or 10 schools to maintain its FBS status.
AAC Commissioner Tim Pernetti isn’t one to sit around and wait for others to pillage his conference . Adding Air Force would give the AAC some level of insurance if any of those schools were to depart.
And what of the MWC? It still has some stability with eight members, but it’s unlikely it’ll fetch the number it would have in media rights discussions sans four of its bigger brands when its deal with CBS Sports and Fox expires in 2026. It’s possible it looks to CUSA or the FCS (North Dakota State and South Dakota State come to mind) to backfill, but it’s possible we’re in for another implosion akin to the Pac-12's.
Regardless of how this lands, expect Air Force to be an important domino in the latest Group of Five realignment wave.
Could the South Carolina AD situation prove a case study for future jobs?
So, did I miss anything in Columbia, S.C., this week?
The wonderful planner I am, I booked a trip out to Washington during the same week ESPN’s “College GameDay” took place down the road from my house, along with longtime AD Ray Tanner’s decision to retire .
Great work, I know. Please feel free to book me for all your future planning needs.
Jokes aside, there had been rumblings Tanner’s tenure might be coming to an end, but few I spoke with expected it to be this soon. Now an SEC AD job is open, and that will be sure to bring its share of options.
Sources told SBJ a few names worth monitoring at the Group of Five level include ADs Bryan Blair (Toledo, and an SBJ 2024 Forty Under 40 honoree ), Mike Buddie (Army), Jared Benko (Georgia Southern), Jeff Purinton (Arkansas State) and Chance Miller (Coastal Carolina). All have varying ties to the school or state and have done impressive jobs in their current spots. Tennessee Deputy AD Ryan Alpert, a Columbia native, should also get a look.
It’s also possible the school looks within its own conference. Could Florida’s Scott Stricklin or Arkansas’ Hunter Yurachek get involved? Stricklin’s time in Gainesville may be tied to Billy Napier’s future, while Yurachek isn’t in nearly as precarious a spot, but he did previously work at Coastal Carolina and has a son on the South Carolina football staff.
Where things get interesting is if there’s interest from ADs elsewhere in the Power Four.
It’s no secret the SEC and Big Ten have grown head and shoulders above the rest of college athletics. We’ve also already seen head football coaches leave their posts in favor of coordinator jobs within those conferences. Are ADs next for those kinds of moves?
South Carolina is a good case study for this working theory. It ranked 12th out of 15 public SEC schools in total revenue during the 2023 fiscal year, per USA Today’s college athletic department financial database. Still, the facilities are in a good spot, and there’s general stability around its head coaches in football (assuming things continue on an OK path for Shane Beamer), baseball and men’s and women’s basketball.
That confluence of factors may make it an intriguing proposition for a Big 12 or ACC AD looking to seek a job in a conference with significant long-term stability. That is, of course, if South Carolina is willing to pay. Tanner’s last deal paid him a shade under $1.2 million. South Carolina may not have to double Tanner’s salary to nab a sitting Power Four AD, but it might need to come close.
AD Pat Chun, Washington prepping for revenue share
Pat Chun’s only been on the job at Washington for six months, but the college sports world has changed plenty.
Chun, for one, jumped from one side of the Apple Cup to the other. The potential House settlement, too, remains in flux after Judge Claudia Wilken voiced concerns over restrictions on third-party NIL collectives, among other pieces to the proposal.
Still, Chun and the Washington athletic department are preparing for a world where revenue sharing becomes a reality.
“The nice thing for me is I started at the end of March, and the discussion [around] revenue share started happening a couple weeks after that,” Chun said. “That kind of forces all of the niceties to go away, because we needed to come up with some real solutions. In terms of just trying to get to know an athletic department better, nothing helps build relationships and trust like when you have real problems to solve.”
Washington’s financial situation is certainly less murky than its cross-state rival these days. The school is expected to receive a half-share of the standard Big Ten membership distribution, which still should significantly outpace what Washington would’ve received in the Pac-12 media deal with Apple that was proposed by George Kliavkoff prior to the conference’s functional dissolution.
Smaller cut of the pie aside, the Huskies, too, have shown they can be competitive at the highest levels in revenue generation. Washington’s $145.1 million in total revenue ranked 25th nationally among schools with publicly available financial records during the 2023 fiscal year, per USA Today’s college athletic department financial database. That would’ve ranked ninth among Big Ten schools last year but within about $6 million of Iowa, which slotted sixth in the conference.
Washington has seen its share of turnover in the last two years between a conference move, a new AD and a change in football coaches from Kalen DeBoer -- who left to replace Nick Saban at Alabama -- to Jedd Fisch. But if history serves as a reminder, the Huskies should be competitive quickly in their new home.
“I remind everyone we're in the Big Ten and the Big Ten and Washington have always been at the highest levels of benefits and services for student athletes,” Chun told SBJ when asked how much UW might contribute toward revenue sharing. “That will not change.”
Speed reads
- FBS independents such as UConn, UMass and even Notre Dame face a taxing question: Is football independence feasible in the modern college landscape?
- In this week's SBJ Media newsletter, Mollie Cahillane takes a look at the media-rights implications of the Pac-12's rebuilding effort.
- As part of the debut of SBJ's Facilities newsletter, Bret McCormick reports on Auburn picking the "low-hanging fruit" for generating more revenue at Jordan-Hare Stadium: creating new premium options and modernizing the food and beverage service this past offseason. He also looks at Virginia Tech installing mesh seats to boost season-ticket revenue.
- SBJ's Terry Lefton checks in with Playfly Sports as it marks its fourth anniversary, when it bought college-focused shop Outfront Media Sports during the pandemic.
- Rutgers baseball will be the first tenant for a new 6,500-capacity ballpark that will be located on the campus of Middlesex College, notes McCormick.
- The SEC will use Hawk-Eye Innovations’ video replay system for soccer and volleyball this fall, writes SBJ's Joe Lemire.
- The tech-enhanced football helmet designed by AT&T and Gallaudet University to assist coach-to-player communication for deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes received NCAA approval for in-game use for the school's entire 2024 season, notes SBJ's Rob Schaefer.