With news of the Buffaloes moving back to the Big 12 Conference, Colorado has become, as Dan Wolken of USA TODAY Sports puts it, the “tipping point” of the Pac-12/Big 12 debate.
The Big 12 has won via a 10th-round knockout. But the writing has been on the wall for the Pac-12 for more than a year now.
Ever since USC and UCLA announced they were headed to the Big Ten, the Pac-12 has been struggling to survive as a conference. From its well-publicized issues with securing a media rights deal to rumors of its remaining marquee schools being courted by other conferences, this was something that was never going to be fixed by adding a couple of Mountain West schools.
The Pac-12’s standing as a Power Five conference had been called into question, and the initial domino of USC and UCLA moving underlined this issue (h/t USA TODAY Sports):
Sure, you can have a nice football league with Oregon, Washington and Utah and have Arizona basketball carry your banner in March. But is that really a power conference? The Pac-12 hasn’t had a representative in the College Football Playoff since 2016, and the cold reality is that UCLA and USC leaving has diminished the league in a way that it had no real chance to recover from.
We may be looking at the last days of the Pac-12.
Contact/Follow us @BuffaloesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Colorado news, notes and opinions.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=26]