San Diego has the feel of a sports boomtown right now.
On May 18, the city
received a Major League Soccer expansion franchise. In April, San Diego State men’s basketball played in the national championship game.
Fernando Tatis Jr. is back with the Padres for the first time since 2021. Manchester United will play Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham FC at Snapdragon Stadium in July, and the stadium will host a Gold Cup semifinal that month as well. Since the Chargers left in 2017, the sports scene has rebounded in a big way.
But the final transformative sports move set to hit the city this year remains without a launch date:
San Diego State’s invitation to join a Power 5 conference.
To talk to people around San Diego State, the Mountain West and elsewhere in college sports, an invite is all but inevitable after
USCand
UCLA signed up for the Big Ten.
The Pac-12’s drawn-out media rights negotiations have slowed the process, but whether it’s the Pac-12 or the Big 12, a monumental move is likely on the way.
“One or the other is going to happen,”
San Diego State athletic director John David Wicker told The Athletic in April. “We’re excited for the opportunity, and we’ve done a lot of work to prepare for that.”
GO DEEPER
First Final Four berth was far from the end of San Diego State's continued climb
It’s no fluke that SDSU has reached this moment. It’s the result of an investment in athletics over multiple decades, ideal geography and the selection of the right coaches at the right time.
The Aztecs made just three NCAA men’s basketball tournament appearances between their move to Division I in 1970 and Steve Fisher’s arrival in 1999. Aztec football played in three bowl games between its joining the WAC in 1978 and Brady Hoke’s arrival in 2009. Now, San Diego State leads the nation in combined football and men’s basketball winning percentage since 2010, at 73.7 percent. SDSU football is 7-4 against the Pac-12 since 2016.
“People talk about how basketball brought athletics and the campus together more than it had been in the past,” said Wicker, whose first stint at SDSU began in 2011. “Now we’ve continued to make investments in basketball and football where we expect to compete for conference championships and make a Final Four run.”
The construction of Viejas Arena, the home of Aztecs basketball, in 1997 was the first major investment, and the completion of Snapdragon Stadium in 2022 on
the site of the old Qualcomm Stadium was the crown jewel.
“Snapdragon is the destination stadium in San Diego,” Wicker said of the $310 million university-owned building.
With competitive facilities and a prime location, the university’s long-term future is bright.
“I always thought the Pac-12 would not ask us in with UCLA and USC because they would put us on equal footing, and we would be too great a competitor to let in,” SDSU basketball coach Brian Dutcher said in March. “So now that they’re gone and Southern California has a really good team sitting in San Diego, I would think we would be desirable for the Pac-12, the Big 12, a lot of conferences.”
Basketball is at its peak. Football? That’s a bit of a different question. The program is coming off a disappointing 7-6 season. Making bowl games isn’t the standard anymore. Can Hoke and the Aztecs get back into conference championship contention before a potential conference move?
Much more in the article below ⬇️
Can Brady Hoke and the Aztecs get back into conference championship contention before a potential conference move?
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