After wild week of conference expansion, is there room for Fresno State in the Big 12?

Fresno State president Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval continues to discuss potential expansion opportunities with the Big 12, which after a wild weekend of conference realignment is up to 16 teams, but still does not have the late-night Pacific Time Zone television windows that commissioner Brett Yormark has said he covets.

Will it make a move west to get to 18 teams, with the college football landscape sure to shift again with what is left of the Pac-12 searching for landing spots?

There is value there, said Bob Thompson, the retired former president of the Fox Sports Networks.

“I would think it makes a lot of sense for the Big 12 to be in the Pacific Time Zone, for a variety of reasons, not just from a television standpoint,” Thompson said.. “The whole idea of regionality has gone away from a lot of these conferences, and if you want to be a national brand you have to be national. You have to be in every time zone.”

That idea would seemingly give life to Fresno State and other schools in the west, with their athletics programs now navigating a chaotic situation after former Pac-12 schools Arizona, Arizona State and Utah bolted for the Big 12 and Oregon and Washington for the Big Ten.

After the recent additions, the Big 12 (soon to be 16) will have programs from Florida to Texas and Utah and all through middle America, including Iowa State, Oklahoma and Kansas.. But it is still missing a West Coast presence.

Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State are all that remain of the Pac-12, which was known as the Conference of Champions before its failure to secure a media rights deal beyond this season led to a mass exodus that has it on the brink of extinction.

Cal and Stanford reportedly are not inclined or interested in partnering with the Mountain West or the Big 12 and could end up in the Atlantic Coast Conference or the Big Ten, while Oregon State and Washington State are in a scramble mode looking to make the best of what is a very bad situation and limited options.

Mountain West weighing expansion options

The Mountain West Conference, where the Bulldogs’ have won four football championships since joining in 2012, could take on Oregon State or Washington State. It could also lose members to a remodeled Pac-12, should it attempt to add new members in search of life and a more lucrative media rights deal.

Jiménez-Sandoval has had conversations with the Big 12 since January and a university source said those continued this week after the defections from the Pac-12. The Fresno State president made clear on Tuesday that in a time of extreme changes he continues to explore all options including expansion efforts by the Mountain West.

“We are proud, strong members of the Mountain West. We are the cream of the crop in the Mountain West,” Jiménez-Sandoval said. “We have the region. We have the culture. We have the backing. I’m very proud to be a member of the Mountain West.

“However, I’m also very keenly aware that Fresno and Fresno State need to be valued on a national stage for what we produce and what we literally bring to the table. In order to do that, we do need a broader audience. We do need a broader venue to which we can vocalize what we are producing as a region not only to the nation but to the world.”

That could come in a bulked up Mountain West, if eventually adding Oregon State and Washington State. But it would be amplified greatly with an invitation to join the Big 12, which not only has had eyes on the Pacific Time Zone, but also international initiatives in Mexico that align well with Fresno State and the San Joaquin Valley.

But any next move by the Big 12 or any Power Five conference comes down to money.

Cash - what else? - is key to Big 12 expansion

The television networks have committed millions of dollars with the Pac 12 teams moving to other big conferences: The Big 12 has added Arizona, Arizona State. Colorado and Utah, and the Big Ten has added Oregon and Washington, after already luring UCLA and USC away.

The former Pac-12 schools moving to the Big 12 each will receive a full share of media rights revenue from the conference, about $31.7 million per year not including distributions from the College Football Playoff.

Oregon and Washington reportedly will receive about $32.5 million a year in media rights revenue from the Big Ten, about half what the rest of the conference including UCLA and USC will receive.

Is there enough left for two West Coast schools to join the Big 12, even coming in at reduced shares that might range anywhere from $10 million to $20 million a year?

“I think it makes a lot of sense for the Big 12 to be on the West Coast,” Thompson, the former Fox Sports president, said. “They strive to be a national brand, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing basketball exhibitions in Rucker Park (the famous court in New York City ) and going to Mexico to play games, and to be truly national you need to have a presence on the West Coast.”