Yes, Big 12 fans throughout the conference’s central Plains footprint are enjoying the Pac-12’s moment of crisis, anguish and possible death.
If the Arizona schools follow Colorado out the door, that’s the worst-case scenario for the Pac-12. It’s hard to see the conference remaining intact if that happens. Utah would have little to no reason to stick around. The same goes for Washington … and Oregon … and Stanford … and Cal-Berkeley. Washington State and Oregon State don’t want anything more or less than being Pac-12 members, but the other schools have actual options to varying degrees. If the Arizona schools leave, that’s probably it for the Pac-12.
Big 12 fans recall that when their conference was on the ropes a few years ago, people wondered if the Pac-12 would poach the remnants and put the Big 12 out of its existence. The media fueled that line of thought (albeit more out of speculative interest and a desire to get clicks than pure anti-Big 12 animus — that point might be irrelevant to some), and Big 12 fans remembered.
Now that the Pac-12 is in peril, every Big 12 fan is smiling and munching on popcorn.
Of any Big 12 fan base, however, one is especially reveling in this Pac-12 death drama. We’ll walk through the backstory on this one: