CBS Sports college basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander spent a month surveying 100-plus Division I men’s basketball coaches for our annual Candid Coaches series. They polled across the sport’s landscape: some of the biggest names in college basketball, but also small-school assistants in low-major leagues. Coaches agreed to share unfiltered opinions in exchange for anonymity. We asked them 10 questions, and will post the results over a three-week span.
We began this year’s Candid Coaches series on Monday with a look at UConn’s place in conference realignment and what basketball coaches believe is best for that school.
Now we turn our attention to the opposite coast.
Gonzaga, the king of the WCC for nearly 25 years now, has semi-privately flirted with the Big 12, Mountain West and Big East in recent years. It has also long been seen by some in college sports as a logical/geographical add-on (even without football) to the Pac-12 … but that was before the Pac-12 crumbled.
There is no evolutionary story in college athletics quite like Gonzaga. It is a one of one. From mid-major outpost to national power. As football-dominated realignment continues to obliterate the geography of college sports, where does a school like GU fit? Does it fit anywhere, other than the conference where it’s grown into a basketball behemoth?
So, we asked …
Which league is best for Gonzaga: WCC, Big 12, Big East or a combo of Pac-12/Mountain West schools?
WCC49%Wait and align with Pac-12 and/or Mountain West18%Big East17%Big 1216%
Quotes that stood out
Stay in WCC
• “Outside of revenue, I would say they would be STUPID for leaving the conference they are in.”
• “They are a high-major team in a mid-major league. They are set up to win 25-30 games every year and they do not have football. Moving to a conference where they will face equal/greater talent every night AND travel cross-country … that…
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