Gonzaga has been and will continue to be an attractive prospective addition for leagues looking to bolster their basketball profile as conference realignment rages. Could a basketball-only alignment make sense? Gonzaga has become a national title contender year in and out under coach Mark Few.

And it has spoken with the Pac-12.

According to John Canzano — who chatted with Few recently for a column on his Substack, ‘Bald Faced Truth’ — the Zags have had conversations with “a number of consultants and conferences, including the Pac-12” about the prospects of joining.

The Pac-12 is set to lose USC and UCLA in 2024 when the two Los Angeles-based schools bolt for the Big Ten.

In the Trojans, the Pac-12 loses a football blue blood. In the Bruins, a basketball blue blood. With both departing, it’ll lose its foothold in the ever-important L.A. TV market.

Decisions that will be made by the conference in response to that defection are going to be made through a revenue-driven, football-specific lens.

But Canzano intimated the West Coast Conference powerhouse could be a possible basketball-only addition somewhere on down the line.

“We’ve always just done stuff because that’s the way we’ve always done it,” Few told Canzano. “It’s always been, ‘You’re in this league. You’re in that league. You guys stay in your region and you stay in that region.’ …I have no idea why we don’t have leagues different for every sport.”

Such a move would require alignment from the current Pac-12 presidents and chancellors, which might not exactly be there. From Canzano’s reporting:

No doubt, the Pac-12 men’s basketball coaches would cringe at the thought. And again, Kliavkoff would need his bosses on board. That will be tricky. It’s why I don’t think the Pac-12 would have initial alignment on the addition of Gonzaga.

…

“We just need to look and kind of make a really solid, prudent decision,” Few said. “So far what we’ve been doing has been working pretty good also, but the landscape is changing and we’re aware of that.”

Commissioner George Kliavkoff said on Wednesday the league is looking to secure a media rights deal that will “close the gap” between the Pac-12 and the Big Ten and SEC, then it’ll turn its attention to conference expansion.

Asked who might be on his board, Kliavkoff said “we’re not going to talk about specific candidates,” and that he’s “not going to get ahead of my board on that.”

San Diego State and UNLV have been bandied about. So have Fresno State and Boise State. Would a Big 12 school jump ship after all the talk of the inverse happening?

Perhaps it’s time to add the Zags to the board.