Shocker, huh? It’s still the ultimate talking point within and surrounding the conference and will surely come up more than, say, altering the Big East Tournament, which should certainly be mentioned … a lot.

Nevertheless, there is incentive, both figuratively and literally, to advancing the expansion discussions this time. After all this time, it sure seems there are benefits to being behind because the Pac-10/12 is providing a pretty good model to follow — and this is probably not good news for Villanova.

Last June, as the Pac-10 was moving on the Utes and Buffaloes, one Chicago marketing firm that works with college athletic programs was estimating that the two schools would add to the Pac-10 potential, but not significantly to a conference that already had Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Seattle and Portland, Ore.

One estimate was $14.5 million per school in the new deal. The Pac-10 members will go that figure $6.3 million better, starting this football season through 2022-23 (and creating its own Pac-12 network, too, holding back 36 football games for telecast there, for starters).

“I’m not saying Villanova is that or isn’t that, or can be that. I don’t know. That’s up to the commissioner and other people in the conference office to decide in talking with the TV people. But it does tell us what might be possible if you do get the right teams.”

“What happened there struck a chord with me,” Luck said. “There’s a lesson in that for us in the Big East. What’s the lesson? Well, if you do get the right teams, the right schools, it can be a real plus. It can provide a real bump, and we need that.