Gonzaga Basketball: Why moving to the Mountain West is a bad idea

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LUBBOCK, TX – FEBRUARY 24: The Texas Tech Red Raiders mascot ‘Raider Red’ poses next to the stage during ESPN’s College Game Day prior to the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Kansas Jayhawks on February 24, 2018 at United Supermarket Arena in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

How ESPN plays into this?

Mark Few and the program at-large deserves most of the credit for the rise of Gonzaga. But ESPN itself has played a role when it comes to the exposure of the program.

In the years of the Zag’s growth, they were able to schedule home and home series with the likes of North Carolina, Michigan State, Wake Forest (in their prime) and other legit programs. While it’s true that by this point Gonzaga had become a guaranteed top-50 program in terms of metrics, that didn’t meant that schools would travel to Spokane.

That’s where the Worldwide leader in sports came in, making sure that those games were on national television. What’s the point at playing at Gonzaga if no one sees it? Just in this season alone, ESPN played a part in hooking the Zags up with Villanova in the Jimmy V Classic in Madison Square Garden.

The network has also been kind to the WCC as well. First, the league plays on Thursday, a day only the Pac-12 (which plays on Fox Sports too) is the only other notable league. It also avoids Tuesday and Wednesday, where practically everyone plays including the big squads.

They’ve also broadcast the quarterfinals, as well as give the league basically their own platform on Monday and Tuesday nights. Most other mid-majors get just their title games on ESPNU.

ESPN does have rights on the Mountain West, along with CBS Sports Network. The schedule however is a bit different, with the primary games in the week happening on Tuesday and Wednesday (Gonzaga would play at 11:00 p.m. ET. if on TV) and late as well on Saturday and sometimes Sunday.

The Zags also wouldn’t be guaranteed to be on TV, as games like Nevada-UNLV and Boise State-Wyoming could be picked ahead. So fans might have to look on ESPN3 for some games. In my opinion, from a television standpoint, the WCC is better for than the Mountain West.