A year after the Mountain West joined the Big Ten officiating consortium to supply men’s basketball referees, five conference members essentially decided it wasn’t such a good decision.
Multiple sources told the Union-Tribune that the Pac-12 will join the Big 12’s officiating consortium instead when it relaunches in 2026-27 with five Mountain West schools plus Oregon State, Washington State and Gonzaga.
The old Pac-12 was part of a West Coast officiating consortium that also included the Mountain West, West Coast Conference, Big West, Big Sky and WAC. When the Pac-12 disbanded last year, so did the officiating consortium, leaving the other five conferences to find a new source of striped shirts.
The WCC, Big West, Big Sky and WAC followed consortium head John Higgins to the Big 12 group. The Mountain West split off and joined the Big Ten’s group that also administers several Midwest leagues.
The idea was that, with four Pac-12 schools in the Big Ten, its top officials would detour to Mountain West cities on their way to work UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington games.
That never really happened, though, much to private consternation of several Mountain West athletic directors. Of the 15 top-rated men’s basketball officials according to the Kenpom metric, 11 worked games in the Big Ten last season a combined 248 times, compared to just 27 in the Mountain West.
The problem: Many of the veteran officials who previously worked on the West Coast — guys like Gregory Nixon, Tony Padilla, Michael Greenstein and Eric Curry — were shunned by the Big Ten and followed Higgins to the Big 12 consortium. That left only a handful of West Coast-based referees for the Big Ten, and the travel logistics proved too challenging to get the Midwest guys to the Mountain and Pacific time zones.
The result, on many nights, was sub-par crews in the Mountain West compared to past years. SDSU, coming off trips to the national championship game and Sweet 16, had Division II officials working some of its games.
SDSU, Boise State, Colorado State, Utah State and Fresno State will have to worry about it only one more season, the last for the currently configured Mountain West. They’ll join the Pac-12 in 2026-27.
The Mountain West remains contracted with the Big Ten consortium.
Season ticket renewals
Men’s basketball season ticket holders at Viejas Arena have received renewal information for 2025-26. Prices went up again … but minimally compared to recent seasons.
Season tickets increased roughly 2.5%, and all of that was in the Aztec Club membership that is required to purchase them. The base price of seats remained flat.
Athletic director John David Wicker attributed the modest bump “to account for the cost of living adjustment and the state budget uncertainty we are currently facing.”
A year ago, prices spiked 20% in most seating areas. The year before, after playing for the national championship, they rose about 5%.
Not counting premium courtside or tabled seats at floor level, the most expensive areas are now $3,106, which is $1,130 for the actual ticket and $1,976 for the mandatory Aztec Club donation. That’s up $76 from last season and computes to $207 per game for an anticipated 15-game schedule.
A sideline seat 20 rows up is now $1,735, or $115.67 per game. The cheapest locations in the upper bench seating behind the basket are $261, an increase of just $6.
Butler to combine
Former Aztecs guard Lamont Butler is not among the 75 players headed to the NBA draft combine next week in Chicago, but the Kentucky senior did receive an invite to the 45-player G League elite camp that runs this weekend, also in Chicago. The top few players from that event typically are invited to join the main combine from May 11-18.
SDSU guard Miles Byrd and two other Mountain West players (Colorado State’s Nique Clifford and Nevada’s Kobe Sanders) were invited to the main combine. Butler is one of six former Mountain West players at one of the pre-draft events. Wisconsin’s John Tonje (formerly of Colorado State), Texas Tech’s Darrion Williams (Nevada) and VCU’s Max Shulga (Utah State) are in the main combine, and Iowa State’s Keshon Gilbert (UNLV) and Missouri’s Caleb Grill (UNLV) are in the G League event.
ACC reverts to 18
The ACC is doing the opposite of the Mountain West, dropping from a 20-game conference basketball schedule to 18 in hopes of bolstering metrics with more opportunities to build a nonconference resume. The Mountain West had been at 18 games for years before, despite the protests of SDSU, bumped to 20 last season (and went from six or four NCAA Tournament invites).
The ACC had been at 20 since 2019-20 but has struggled to put as many teams in the NCAA Tournament as fellow power conferences. The ACC had just four last season, its fewest since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
“Moving to an 18-game conference schedule,” commissioner Jim Phillips said in a news release, “is a direct result of our ongoing strategic review and analysis and provides our schools a better balance of non-conference and conference games, while also allowing them more autonomy in the scheduling process. This decision reflects our ongoing prioritization to do what’s best for ACC men’s basketball, and we appreciate the thoughtfulness of our membership and the support from our television partners.”
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