It’s hard to ignore that there was a little extra emotional significance attached to Seattle University’s meeting with San Francisco tonight, not only because of all the history but also because of the ongoing search for a conference.

There are Seattle fans out there who believe the WCC is a better fit than the WAC and so there had to be some feeling of wanting to see the Redhawks do well against a WCC opponent.

To be totally clear, it’s not as if this game was necessarily going to influence that decision: it appears that the WCC is at the very least in no rush to expand and at worst not too eager to bring Seattle University aboard. So it’s not like a win would have the WCC knocking down Seattle’s door.

But a 97-76 loss certainly doesn’t help convince those in the WCC who might have reservations about bringing Seattle U in as a 10th program, even with Denver – apparently the WCC’s preferred choice – already having accepted an invite to the WAC.

All that said, this has been a tough way to start the season – jumping right in to a road game against an ACC opponent and then coming back west to face a team that is further along in their rebuilding process on the road. The circumstances have not been favorable, but the outcomes haven’t necessarily been encouraging from afar either.