Apparently, Gonzaga's AD was waiting for an invite last year:
2. As we head into the The Summer of Conference Realignment, Part 2: One Year Later, it’s becoming clearer that GU isn’t going anywhere.
But Roth says it’s not his fault. When the Big East Conference reformed in July 2013, he had GU Athletics ready to move to the new Big East along with the other “Catholic Seven” schools. He recognized that GU would be a perfect fit in every way with the other private, Catholic, similar-size, liberal arts schools from that conference.
One single problem threw a wrench in the gears: geography. As much as a program can request to join a conference, it eventually has to be invited by the conference, Roth said. Unfortunately for GU, the Big East programs were not willing to fly their sports teams five or six hours to Spokane dozens of times every year, even if Roth was.
Roth says he likes to say that the only way GU would be accepted into the Big East is if teleportation is invented.
Anytime teleportation enters a discussion of conference realignment, things aren’t looking good.
And with a lack of a football team and no foreseeable way GU could re-establish its football program, don’t expect the Pac-12 to come calling, either.
For now, GU looks to be stuck in the ho-hum WCC. While it won’t do us any favors in terms of men’s or women’s basketball, at least the Zags won’t be constantly flying to the Northeast for every away game. That might qualify as low-level silver lining.
http://m.gonzagabulletin.com/mobile/arts_and_entertainment/article_d7f046c0-c5df-11e3-be30-001a4bcf6878.html