Promotion, Relegation & the Pac-2

Promotion and relegation have been a staple of European soccer for decades.  Now Washington State and Oregon State want to bring the concept to American college sports.  It's all part of their attempt to salvage whatever's left of the Pac-2.  It's interesting to say the least.  And it'll never work.  But, hey, I give them credit for thinking outside the box!

This new plan seems to be the first sign that they've accepted their fate.  While they've said an official announcement won't come until next month, it's looking increasingly likely that Washington State and Oregon State will be involved in some sort of merger with the Mountain West.  They're just trying to figure out the logistics of what the new conference will look like.  Which is where this ridiculous promotion/relegation plan came from.

The Mountain West currently has 11 full members, plus Hawaii as an associate member in football.  Washington State and Oregon State will bring that to 13, but they would likely need to add at least three more schools for the promotion/relegation idea to even be feasible (two if Hawaii becomes a full member, which I think they should).  Then, the top eight schools would, presumably, play in the new Pac-8, with the remaining eight playing in the Mountain West and promotion/relegation between the top two in Mountain West and bottom two in Pac-8.

Let's, for argument's sake, say they get the buy-in for this insane plan.  The first thing they'd need to do is add two teams (I'm making Hawaii a full member for the sake of this exercise).  Those would likely come from Conference USA, and I'll take the two westernmost Conference USA teams--New Mexico State and UTEP.  They fit both competitively and geographically, and it would actually be a reunion between UTEP and several of its former WAC rivals.

Things start to get complicated right away, though.  Because who do you put in each conference?  You'd figure Washington State, Oregon State, San Diego State and Boise State would automatically go on the Pac-8 side, but who are the other four?  And how would you determine that?  Fresno State and Utah State have had the most recent football success, so I guess that would make them five and six, then San Jose State would be number seven.  But who's the eighth?  Nevada?  Colorado State?  UNLV?

Then there's the frequency at which teams are promoted and relegated.  Logistically, I'd think you'd have to do it on a two-year cycle so that teams can make their schedules and plan their travel accordingly.  Maybe you base it on a team's two-year record, with the two worst records being relegated and the two Mountain West champions (or the team with the second-best overall record if the same team wins in back-to-back years) being promoted?

And would it apply only to football?  If so, what about the other sports?  I suppose you could determine the conferences for every sport based entirely on the football standings, but basing it on overall performance would definitely be the fairer way to go.  Every conference already has its own commissioner's cup or similar type of trophy for all-sport success, which is determined via an existing point system.  I say you use that same all-sport point system to create your divisions/"conferences."

I'll admit, if it works, it definitely sounds intriguing.  It would give teams incentive to be as strong as possible in every sport as a means of avoiding relegation (or getting promoted).  But it could also be self-defeating.  It's an admission that half your league isn't as good as the other half.  And it wouldn't achieve the desired result of keeping the Pac-2's position as a Power 5 league.  Especially when a 14-team full Mountain West would be a stronger conference than two eight-team mini-leagues.

Getting a TV partner on board would likely be a tough sell, too.  The lack of a TV contract is what killed the Pac-12, and I can't see the combined conference getting a deal lucrative enough to make this plan worthwhile.  Especially since it's not European soccer, where they have the relegation battle at the end of the season and it keeps people invested.  There's no way there would be anywhere near the same sort of investment at the end of the Pac-8/Mountain West baseball season to see who'll be in which league the following year.

Every sport other than football causes a different set of logistical issues, too.  Among existing Mountain West members, the only sports that have a full complement of teams are men's and women's basketball, women's track & field, women's volleyball, women's tennis and men's golf.  Football (Hawaii) and women's soccer (Colorado College) both have an associate member.  So, while promotion and relegation sounds great in sports that have 16 teams, what do you do in baseball, which would only have 12?  Or Olympic sports, where the size of the conference really doesn't matter?

While the idea sounds great in theory, I can't see Mountain West presidents and athletic directors signing off on it.  Because who does it really benefit?  It strengthens the top half of the league, which would be very strong and very competitive nationally.  But it would also make the other "conference" incredibly weak by comparison.  And it would do nothing to help the middle-of-the-road programs.  Sure, they'd stand a better chance of winning against the weaker opponents, but that would do nothing to help their strength of schedule, which is often the No. 1 thing taken into account when it comes to NCAA Tournament at-large bids.

Of course, we all know the main reason for all of this.  And I get it.  Oregon State and Washington State are doing everything in their power to preserve the Pac-2 brand (that they currently own) and everything it represents.  Not just the history.  There are NCAA Tournament shares and, most importantly, NCAA Tournament auto-bids that would go away if the conference were to completely disappear.

They obviously don't want that, so they're trying to come up with a creative solution.  And they definitely deserve credit for their creativity.  I'm not sure how feasible it is in practice, though.  There seem to be a lot of potential issues that would come with just trying to get it off the ground.  Not the least of which, you'd have half of the Mountain West pissed off that they got put in the "weaker" league.

None of this is Oregon State or Washington State's fault.  They're the biggest victims yet of conference realignment.  They're going from being in a Power 5 league (that, ironically, might be the best in the country right now) to not being in one.  That, unfortunately, isn't going to change.  Even if this ridiculous promotion/relegation merger with the Mountain West goes through, that won't change.