Tag: Pac-12 Conference

Lincoln Riley’s use of the transfer portal has USC in the hunt for big prizes

USC is in position to do good things this year for several reasons, one being that its staff believes in the portal as a roster-changer.

In college sports today, the transfer portal is not peripheral to a coach’s job description; it is central and absolutely necessary. Coaches will ignore or neglect the portal at their peril. The USC Trojans, with Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams, are a premier destination for transfers. USC has a head coach who understands the importance of the portal. It’s a big part of why the Trojans were good in Year 1 of the Riley era and have a chance to be even better in Year 2.

As such, this offseason was a massive success, and the list of portal additions is a long one. Jack Follman of SuperWest Sports ranked the best transfer classes in the Pac-12, and the Trojans are second on the list behind the Oregon Ducks.

“USC is stacking more talent. (Dorian) Singer is in the conversation for best receiver in the conference and was stolen from a former division rival. Cobb and White are All-Conference-type guys who will plug and play right away as starters and make a difference. They’re only the headliners too, as the Trojans have solid depth coming in on top of them in the portal.”

UCLA, Colorado, and Washington (whom USC lost Ralen Goforth to), round out the top five in the Pac-12.

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Winners and losers from the latest conference realignment cycle

We broke down the biggest winners and losers from the latest round of conference realignment

Despite fall camp being underway around the country, conference realignment has dominated the headlines over the past several days. As teams prepare for the 2023 college football, the landscape of college athletics has been tremendously reshaped.

The Pac-12 as we know it is seemingly gone forever thanks to the conference’s inability to secure a lucrative TV deal.

Colorado was the first to jump ship and return to the Big 12, but it did not take long for other schools in the Pac-12 to follow suit and make their exits. Since the Buffs’ departure, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah have all agreed to join other conferences after this year,

Now that the dust has settled, at least for now, let’s take a look at some of the winners and losers from this cycle of conference realignment.

REPORT: ACC to discuss adding Cal and Stanford

The ACC is reportedly set to discuss potentially adding Cal and Stanford

Per ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Atlantic Coast Conference has two calls scheduled to “vet and have exploratory discussions on the potential addition of Cal and Stanford.”

Obviously, this possibility makes little sense from a geographic perspective with Cal and Stanford residing on the Pacific Coast, but the Pac-12’s future appears bleak following the latest round of conference realignment.

As of Monday afternoon, Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and Washington State are the only schools that remain committed to the Pac-12 after this academic year. Arizona, Arizona State and Utah recently followed Colorado into the Big 12, and Oregon and Washington are set to join USC and UCLA in the Big Ten next year.

Unless the Golden Bears and/or Cardinal somehow strike a deal with the Big 12 or Big Ten, joining the ACC figures to be the two schools’ only way of remaining in a power league.

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports also reported on Monday that the University of California Board of Regents has a meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning to “discuss its Pac-12 membership.”

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Pac-12 and Mountain West merger: Will it happen, and how will it happen?

The Pac-4 and Mountain West could merge, but will all Mountain West schools be included? So many questions exist.

Will the Pac-12, which is really now a Pac-4, merge with the Mountain West? A lot of people are talking about it, and it is a possibility. However, we have numerous headaches and questions to sort through.

Will Stanford University even want to be in the Mountain West? Start there. Stanford would definitely prefer to go to the Big Ten. However, does the Big Ten want Stanford?

Follow-up question: Does the Big Ten want Stanford enough to also invite California, or does the Big Ten want Stanford, but not enough to invite the Cardinal alone, without Cal, and then find a 20th member elsewhere (possibly Florida State or North Carolina from the ACC)?

Another big question: Does the Big 12, which reportedly is considering further expansion to 18 schools, want Oregon State? The Beavers would love to go to the Big 12, but the Big 12 has to want them.

These questions are the beginning of a long and difficult process for schools without a lot of leverage as a Pac-4 merger with the Mountain West is discussed.

There is significant backroom chatter surrounding this. We’ll give you a sample below, accompanied by reportage from the San Diego Tribune and reactions from people in both conferences:

George Kliavkoff failed the Pac-12, but especially Washington State and Oregon State

The #Pac12 died on Kliavkoff’s watch, but more than that, he failed to fight tooth and nail for two schools which deserved better.

George Kliavkoff was stuck and paralyzed at the very end. At least, that’s the conclusion we are led to reach in the absence of additional reportage or disclosures.

The Pac-12 had a primary media deal through Apple, a one-trick-pony package dependent on people buying subscriptions to drive up revenue. The linear television route through ESPN or Turner (TBS/TNT) did not materialize. Other outlets apparently weren’t part of the calculus.

Merging with the ACC or finding other creative plans didn’t rise to the forefront of the Pac-12’s fight to save itself. There simply wasn’t a Plan B, by all appearances. Unless new information comes to light, we are left to conclude the Pac-12 was shortsighted and caught flat-footed. The conference assumed the best instead of preparing for the worst, which is extremely bad leadership and administration.

All of this cost the Pac-12 dearly, but as we have said in recent weeks, not all schools were going to feel the brunt of this worst-case scenario to an equal degree. This was going to hurt some schools more than others.

Washington State and Oregon State were the two schools depending on Kliavkoff and the Pac-12 CEO Group the most. The leaders failed the Cougars and Beavers, and that point needs to be made very clear.

Let’s look at the national reaction to Washington State’s very unfortunate situation, made possible by bumbling and ineffective Pac-12 leadership:

Oregon State prays for Big 12 invite but certainly can’t bank on it

There have been reports that the #Big12 is considering further expansion from 16 to 18, but the #Beavers might not be part of that.

The drama isn’t done in college sports. Yes, the big dominoes fell on Friday when Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah left the Pac-12 to effectively kill the conference.

Maybe a zombie Pac-12 continues in a merger with the Mountain West, but that’s not what Cal, Stanford or Washington State wanted. It’s not what Oregon State wanted, either.

The Beavers are hoping the Big 12 Conference will look to the Northwest. It would be weird, but then again, hasn’t this whole soap opera been extremely bizarre to begin with? There have been reports the Big 12 is considering the possibility of expanding from 16 schools (with the Four Corners schools being newly added) to 18.

This gives Oregon State the hope it can find a power conference home instead of being relegated to the Mountain West. As everyone knows, however, Oregon State isn’t calling the shots here. It will basically do what it is told and go where it is forced to go. The Big 12 has to want OSU. The Beavers can make a presentation or pitch, but it’s not their final call, and they don’t have the pull to insist on how their future looks. It’s sad.

Let’s give you a sampling of the national reaction to Oregon State’s plight in what is now the Pac-4:

Stanford going independent in football could happen and would make sense

Stanford women’s basketball needs a conference, but football could be indie. Here’s a schedule the Cardinal could create:

Stanford women’s basketball, an elite program for decades, needs a conference. Basketball teams need conferences to fill a majority of their schedule and participate in a conference tournament. They also need a conference for splitting and generating revenue. Football, however, doesn’t necessarily operate the same way. Just ask Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish aren’t going to the Big Ten. They don’t need to. Why would they split Big Ten TV revenue with almost 20 other schools when they have their own NBC TV deal and get every cent of it without sharing? Notre Dame can also customize its schedule. Given its national brand and identity, it can command top dollar. It is working well for the Irish, and it will continue to work well for them.

Stanford doesn’t have the brand Notre Dame does, but Stanford also has a brand that is more valuable than BYU’s. BYU was independent for a number of years before finding a Big 12 home. BYU played its own customized schedule much as Notre Dame did, but BYU was treated as a Group of Five team more than a Power Five team the way Notre Dame was.

Stanford would be treated as a Power Five team more than a Group of Five team if it goes independent in football — not as prestigious as Notre Dame, but more prestigious than BYU.

Below, you will find some reactions to Stanford being left in the cold with the other members of the so-called “Pac-4” after Friday’s Pac-12 bloodbath. After those reactions, we will present a 12-game football schedule Stanford could realistically produce as an independent, creating a mix of challenging games and attractive TV properties ESPN would pay for. (We refer to ESPN since Stanford going to the Big Ten would mean Fox exposure. If Stanford goes indie, ESPN would be its most likely broadcaster.)

Here we go:

The final week before the Pac-12 imploded shows why the conference failed

The last week of the Pac-12’s battle for survival showed that the conference really wasn’t in battle mode to begin with.

The final days — then hours — of the Pac-12 Conference as we have known it were marked by the silence more than anything else. There was no desperation, no urgent scrambling to produce a revised plan with bold strokes. It was Apple or bust, in the absence of additional information and reportage which might yet come to light.

Maybe we will get more details that show the Pac-12 fought really hard to save itself and its members, but based on what we know, the conference didn’t appear to put up that much of a fight in the end.

We asked out loud:

“Where’s the Plan B? Was the Pac-12 really not prepared for a worst-case scenario? That’s what all those board meetings and strategy sessions were supposed to create: preparedness for the worst. No one seems to be doing anything while the conference dies a very public death.

“Maybe there’s an 11th-hour intervention, but we’re not seeing signs of it.

“It’s so Pac-12 it hurts.”

It hurts to the point of death.

Let’s relive some of the bizarre, and insufficient, and weak, and unconvincing half-measures the Pac-12 timidly put forth as the clock ticked on its existence this past week:

Twitter reaction to Utah joining Big 12 as the Pac-12 turns out the lights

Utah joins BYU in the same conference over a decade after the two schools coexisted in the Mountain West. #SPICY

“Turn out the lights. The party’s over. They say that all good things must end. Call it a night. The party’s over. And tomorrow starts the same old thing again.”

If you’re old enough to recognize those lyrics, chances are you heard them on Monday Night Football, when Don Meredith pronounced a game as being done and dusted on ABC television.

The Pac-12 is turning out the lights. The party is over. The Conference of Champions is effectively done. The conference is down to four schools: Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and Washington State, after five schools jumped ship on an historic Friday. Utah followed Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, and Washington out the door. While Oregon and Washington moved to the Big Ten, Utah joined Arizona and ASU in going to the Big 12 to form a 16-school conference. The Utes, Wildcats and Sun Devils quickly reunited with Colorado days after the Buffaloes began this domino effect.

Social media reaction was explosive, as you could well imagine. Emotions ran high. Here is a sampling of what went down on a landmark day in college sports:

Twitter reaction to Arizona State joining Big 12 as Pac-12 evaporates

ASU President Michael Crow didn’t want to leave the Pac-12, but in the end, he had no choice. Reactions poured in on a historic day.

It happened. Arizona State left the Pac-12 and moved to the Big 12 on a remarkable, memorable Friday that shook college sports to its core.

ASU President Michael Crow did not want to leave the Pac-12. Remember: He was one of the most ardent defenders and advocates of Larry Scott.

Moreover, ASU enrollment has been fueled in part by Californians. The state of Arizona’s population has grown in recent years because of an exodus from California. The demographics of the state of Arizona are changing. They seemed to nail down ASU to the Pac-12, but, of course, the incompetence of George Kliavkoff and the Pac-12 CEO Group (of which Crow has been a central part) created a stampede out the door.

That stampede began with Colorado in late July. The University of Arizona began to lose trust in Kliavkoff while realizing — as did Oregon and Washington — that the money for a TV deal simply wouldn’t be there with only nine schools left.

Now there are only four left.

See how Twitter reacted when Arizona State moved to the Big 12: