WCC expansion, CBB video game updates, and other notebook clearing

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It’s been a very busy week at Extra Points. Between getting back from the Rio Grande Valley and emptying my notebook from those stories to breaking the latest news on the EA/2K sports CBB video game drama, it’s been tougher for me to stay on top of other major stories in the industry. I’m trying!

One story that slipped under my radar was UC San Diego announcing a move from the Big West to the WCC. This was the realignment move I teased a bit last week, but I couldn’t get directly confirmed enough to publish before the announcement.

In the mid-major basketball world, I’d say this is a very good get. UC San Diego only recently reclassified from Division II, but it’s become very competitive, very quickly. The Tritons are the first program to make both the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments the first year they were eligible. In a few conversations with athletic directors and industry folks around the Big West during my reporting on UVU/CBU joining the league, multiple people pointed to UCSD as a potential giant.

During the introductory press conference Wednesday, UC San Diego chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla said the move “aligns very well with our long-term strategic plan for a renowned Division I athletics program.” The program is also excited to build on a cross-town rivalry with San Diego, and it views the WCC as a strong fit for its entire athletics portfolio, but particularly men’s and women’s basketball.

As far as adding any new members, WCC commissioner Stu Jackson said that the criteria the league uses to evaluate new members are based on “academic performance, athletic performance, geography, and a commitment to student-athlete wellness.”

I asked if the league anticipated making any other realignment decisions in the near future. “We’ve stated publicly over the past year and a half that our Presidents’ Council is committed to adding potentially one to three institutions to our nine-member conference,” Jackson said. “Hearing that commitment, the timing of that, we just don’t know if it were to happen or when it would happen. It will only happen if an institution makes sense for the West Coast Conference and vice versa.”

For what it’s worth, my industry sources are telling me the WCC is very interested in potentially adding other schools from the Big West, like UC Irvine or UC Santa Barbara. I have not heard anything about WCC interest in the Big West’s new incoming additions, Cal Baptist or Utah Valley.

Will that end up happening? Who knows. I don’t think it was a coincidence that UC Irvine chancellor Howard Gillman gave the closing statement in the Big West’s release on the departure: “As an original member of The Big West, UC Irvine reaffirms our commitment to the Division I student-athlete experience, academic success, competitive excellence, and community engagement … while college athletics continues to evolve, the values of our conference remain constant and guide us forward.” 

The most interesting to question to me, honestly, is still why UC San Diego decided to make this move now. There’s been industry speculation for months that Saint Mary’s could potentially leave the league to join either the Pac-12 or the Mountain West. If Saint Mary’s were to leave and nobody else joined, is the WCC actually a better basketball conference than the Big West? Does anybody save that much money on travel? I mean, sure, Salt Lake City is far away from Southern California, but so is Seattle.

But if you were confident that everybody was sticking together, and perhaps one (or more) of your Big West brethren were joining you … then the math looks a bit clearer.

Further research required. Worth monitoring, especially for any realignment spill-over effects should additional teams decide to join the WCC.

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Wait, what’s going on with the basketball video game again?

Thursday morning, I updated my previous story on the EA/2K college basketball licensing drama with a big announcement. EA Sports is rescinding its previous licensing offer.

I’d obviously love everybody to read our earlier reporting on this story, since I think it provided important context to what is going on. But since my social media mentions/email have been an absolute dumpster fire, I want to try and quickly clarify a few misconceptions I’ve seen:

Why can’t EA and 2K just both make games?

Great question. As far as 2K is concerned, that would be just fine. 2K is not pursuing an exclusive license with any school, conference or athlete. It is EA that is asking for an exclusive license. If a school indicated it’d like to work with 2K on its project, EA doesn’t want them involved.

My educated guess on why EA wants an exclusive license? Because it knows 2K is the incumbent industry player and can beat EA to the market by multiple years. If EA is going to assume the expense of developing a basketball title (which will be very expensive and difficult), it doesn’t want consumers to get a two-year head start with the main competition.

I’m not defending that line of thinking or endorsing it, simply trying to explain it the best I can. The reason the companies cannot each make a game is because one company doesn’t want to develop a game in that environment.

Who do I blame?

I don’t think either video game company has acted nefariously. Both companies would like to make a college basketball game. Each company has a different creative vision for a basketball game. One company (2K) has a longer history of making games and can get a title out to the market much faster than the other. Individual schools had to make a business decision. Do you hope EA can meet its production schedule and get a game out on time, or do you work with the more established publisher that you know can deliver a licensing fee next year?

That’s not an easy decision!

The biggest thing I, as a fan of college sports video games, would be concerned about is the idea that 2K may not include all D-I programs in its release. The original licensing plans called for smaller-scale DLC packages that would live within the NBA2K titles, with each year adding more programs. When they confirmed our reporting last night, 2K’s announcement said they will feature “more than 100 programs” …but that’s a long way from everybody.

Will social media reactions push 2K to reconsider? Will video game fans better understand the strategic and creative vision once 2K shares more of its plans? We’ll have to see.

And hey, if you haven’t yet, check out what I wrote about UTRGV

I didn’t fly to McAllen, Texas and boil my blood in 104 degree weather just to gorge myself on Tex-Mex and BBQ. I did it because I thought all of you might be interested in learning more about UTRGV football.

I wrote a feature on what it was like to catch the program’s first-ever football game and what the team may mean for the region. I also wrote about why I think UTRGV is uniquely positioned to be a very successful “expansion team” in college football. Lots of teams, in FCS and FBS, looked like surefire bets, based on geography. That mostly hasn’t happened yet.

I think UTRGV could be different.

For next week, I’m working on some explainers on those “save college sports” commercials you saw all over college football Saturday, a guest post on the blood and guts of revenue sharing, some apparel news and much, much more.

Thanks for reading, everybody. I gotta catch up on my uh, 712 unread emails. I’ll see you next week.