The demise of the Conference of (real NCAA) Champions has been well documented here, but with a recent legal victory, the Oregon State Beavers and the Washington State Cougars are now in a great position to rebuild the league with the proposed absorption of the Mountain West Conference and some other schools which deserves a shot at the big time in college sports. The time is now for some new fun in this dead sport.

What would a new “Pac-20” (or something) look like? Well, now we could find out, thanks to a sensible, honest court ruling. The MWC current has 12 teams, so we’re already looking at a Pac-14 Conference, realistically, with the addition of these teams: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San José State, UNLV, Utah State, and Wyoming. Who else is in?

The new “Pac-14” definitely doesn’t need/want any teams from the Sun Belt Conference, so that’s out. The Mid-American Conference is geographically undesirable, as well, so no go there. Conference USA isn’t that appealing, either, but two schools should be interested in making the leap up: New Mexico State (a natural rival for UNM) and UTEP, located in the west side of Texas and close to the New Mexico border. That works.

In looking at the American Athletic Conference, we also like the idea of poaching both Navy and UTSA, for obvious reasons. The new “Pac-18” could then have more natural rivalries with two military academies (Army remains an independent, for now), even though Annapolis is on the Atlantic Ocean coastline, and two University of Texas campuses in El Paso and San Antonio. That would be a pretty cool footprint, no?

The Midshipmen can afford the travel, for sure, if Navy is already in the AAC, too. Maybe eventually Army could make the move, too, to join its military brethren, and then the league would just need one more adventurous and bold school (Gonzaga?!) to ramp up and become the Pac-20 as we jokingly threw out there earlier. It’s all very possible; the sky is now the limit for Oregon State and Washington State to grab it all.

We, for one, will always be rooting for the Beavers and the Cougars to succeed. Always.