00:00Okay, for you, the West Coast Conference, you talked about Gonzaga leaving the conference expansion. I mean, are you guys
00:07actively looking to add to the WCC? Are you going to stay pat? Or is that also in a process
00:14right now?
00:16Yeah, no, we are, Dan, it's a good question. We're actively and aggressively continuing to add new members. You know,
00:25this year, you may have noticed Seattle University was one of our new members. And they, you know, quite frankly,
00:32a little bit to our surprise, brought a lot to the table. I mean, they've got an excellent coach in
00:37Chris Victor. They performed very well. You know, they got selected in the NIT.
00:43Next year, we'll add the University of Denver. The year after that, it will be UC San Diego, which will
00:51bring us to 11 members in the West Coast Conference. We would like to get to a 12th member to
00:57just further stabilize our league, both on the financial side and the stability of our membership.
01:04What do you think the WCC is going to look like in two years? And I could really ask this
01:09question to any commissioner in sports, football or basketball, Stu. What do you see in two years with the WCC
01:18and where it is?
01:19Well, you're starting to see, Dan, quite candidly, the stark separation in basketball between the Power Five conferences, inclusive of
01:30the Big East and the Power Four, and the mid-major and the lower-major conferences.
01:36That delineation is becoming greater, which makes it more of a challenge for conferences, mid-major conferences like ours, to,
01:46you know, get at-large teams in.
01:49The automatic qualifiers in all of these 32 conferences, that will remain, but it's really getting those extra at-large
01:57teams in for mid-major conferences.
02:00That's a true challenge. And, you know, with Gonzaga leaving our conference, it further enhances that challenge.
02:07So it's incumbent upon us as a conference to continue to try to strengthen our conference from top to bottom,
02:15continue to aggressively schedule to try and build resumes to be in at-large teams.
02:21And if we can do that in the future, albeit that there's been this separation, I still think this conference,
02:29particularly the West Coast Conference, will have an excellent chance of receiving additional at-large bids.
02:36Do you think one of the problems, Stu, is the scheduling itself?
02:41I mean, these Power conferences right now are not really going outside and really going outside the Power conferences when
02:48they're talking about match-ups.
02:50Do you think this really needs to be more of a balanced schedule, or do you think that has to
02:54be open to conferences like Mountain West, WCC, conferences like that, to be able to have the ability to be
03:02able to profit a little bit from what the NCAA is generating?
03:07Look at the money that's being generated right now in college sports.
03:10I mean, if you want to grow the WCC, this has got to come through scheduling during the regular season,
03:15no?
03:16Yeah, it's interesting, Dan, and you bring up an excellent point, but I don't want to place all the blame
03:23on the Power Five basketball conferences.
03:26In recent years, those conferences have expanded, right?
03:31And in at least two of the conferences' cases, their conference schedules have expanded.
03:37So when they have more games, it takes inventory away and off the board for conferences like ours to play
03:45them in the non-conference.
03:47So they're not totally to blame.
03:49If you want to blame anything, blame realignment.
03:53But that being said, listen, and, you know, mid-majors is becoming more difficult.
04:00That is a fact, to schedule Power Five teams, but it can be done, but you have to be willing
04:07to do some extraordinary scheduling to make it happen.
04:11Like, you may need to play Power Five teams on more neutral sites.
04:17You may have to be willing to go to their place twice and hope that they return to your location
04:24once.
04:25So you have to work deals that are a little bit unconventional, but I think, you know, with a lot
04:32of effort on schools like ours, on their part, it can be done.
04:37And that's not all teams in our conference, because some teams in our conferences, like other conferences, are rebuilding.
04:43You know, they're at the bottom.
04:44They're not going to go out and schedule a bunch of really difficult games.
04:47But for our teams at the top, it can be done, but it does take a lot of effort, and
04:51it's getting tougher.
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