Pac-12 Expansion
What’s Going On? All hands on deck. The crazy part about losing USC and UCLA to the Big Ten is that those two haven’t done a whole lot in the championship race lately – there’s only one Pac-12 football championship between them over the last 13 years – but losing both Los Angeles schools is obviously devastating.
Now it’s all about figuring out how to put a fence around the remaining schools while acquiring enough decent new markets to take a little of the sting out of what just happened.
Best Case Scenario: All of the remaining schools in the 2024 version of the Pac-10 stay home. The powers-that-be create a solid new media deal that makes everyone happy, there’s a real alliance with at least one of the other Power Five conferences, and a few new additions make everyone relax a wee bit.
Worst Case Scenario: Oregon and Washington really are gone to the Big Ten, Arizona and Arizona State really are gone to the Big 12, and Colorado is off to the Big Ten or Big 12. The league becomes a sad shadow of its former self.
Crazy Idea That Won’t Work, But … What’s the one almost literal Hail Mary that could ease the pain of losing USC and UCLA? Notre Dame.
The relationship with the Big Ten has SO many egos and moving parts, the ACC hasn’t been able to get this done, and the SEC … nah. Notre Dame fits the Pac-12 in a whole lot of ways. Make that happen, get a few schools from the Mountain West, and this might be salvaged.
What Will Probably Happen: How fast can the Pac-12 move to fix this? Crank up the media deal NOW – that’s in the works – try becoming besties with the Big 12 and/or ACC in some sort of real alignment that keeps everyone from hitting on each other’s members, and if it can chill on the Tier 1 research status, San Diego State and UNLV make sense market-wise, and …
It’s panic time. It’s all about the media deal. Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Arizona State need to know they’re not on a leaking raft.
Conference Expansion: What’s Going On?
ACC | AAC | Big Ten | Big 12 | C-USA | Ind
MAC | Mountain West | Pac-12 | SEC | Sun Belt