San Diego State at the heart of Big 12 vs Pac 12; Why there's a potential fight between rival conferences for SDSU

San Diego State is located in the prime area of Southern California and is considered a huge potential market for whichever destination San Diego ends up in.

The Pac-12 was rocked by the news that USC and UCLA were leaving and they needed replacement teams. Enter San Diego State.

The Pac-12 prides itself on its prioritization of academic performance as its foremost value and San Diego has cleaned up their act in that department. Based on this, they warrant a place with the Pac-12 elite.

The Big 12 versus Pac-12 feud has always been exciting. There have also been rumors that some of the core Pac-12 teams (like Arizona) would also jump ship to the Big 12 if Washinton joined the Big Ten.

What next for San Diego State?

San Diego State's athletics director J.D. Wicker already confirmed his program's intention to leave the Mountain West and join either the Pac-12 or Big 12. This has led to the vying for their attention so far.

It helps that many believe that the media rights deal being negotiated by the Pac-12 will be larger than those by the ACC and Big 12.

San Diego has already shown an effort to improve academically and their sports efforts lately have been laudable. Their basketball team made a national appearance and the football side has shown plenty of promise since 2015, notching five ten-win seasons overall.

Observers are leaning towards San Diego joining the Pac-12 over the Big 12, which will not be expanding. The only factor that seems to be delaying their entry is the pending media rights deal still being sorted out by the Pac-12.

Phil DiStefano, the Colorado Chancellor all but confirmed this current state of affairs. He was quoted saying:

"The media rights saga has been one that has been hanging over the Pac-12 for months, thanks to the fact that the Big 12 was not able to expand, but secure a deal before the Pac-12."

Lastly, not only will the media deal being negotiated by the Pac-12 be bigger than the rest, their expansion efforts could spill over and attract more than the two rumored teams; SMU and San Diego State. There are reports that they could take on as many as four new programs.

With names like; The UTSA Roadrunners who have a stranglehold on the huge San Antonio market mentioned. Another one is Tulane, which has the New Orleans market cornered and is a very good academic program, ranked 44th in the country.