(03-25-2018 10:20 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(03-25-2018 01:18 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Do they do a quick add or do they spend a couple years at 9, dividing the credits the Zags earned less ways

WCC can divide the bounty of Gonzaga-earned credits 9 ways even if they add a 10th member. All they have to do is make it a condition of admission that the 10th school doesn't share in the WCC's March Madness revenue for their first (one, two, three, or four) years in the conference. Or give the new school only partial shares of conference revenue for the first few years -- IIRC the Big 12 did that when they added TCU and WVU.

Actually this is pretty standard practice. You only get the share of the credits earned by the league the first year you enter. So say the WCC has 24 credits accrued in 2019 but only 1 for the year 2019. The new school would only get 1/11th of that 1 credit (league takes a team share in many conferences, so 9 members divide by 10, 10 members divide by 11 and so on), while the other 23 from previous years would get divided 10 ways (9 schools, plus WCC HQ). Then in 2020 say the share are still 20 credits, with 3 from 2018 and 2019, then the new school gets 3 ... and so on until the 6th year.

The MWC might be willing to give GU a full share right away figuring they will earn it back for them in a couple years with one NCAA tourney run or upping RPI enough to get an extra at-large a few times (either GU or another MWC school). Or they might give them 1/6th of the shares for the prior 5 years, then 1/3rd of the prior 4 years their 2nd year ... and so on until they arrive at a full share. They might give 30% TV share instead of 25% for non-Football as sweetener. There is some flexibility there to make the transition cost minimal for the Zags.

I can't see the WCC cutting such a deal for anyone they add.