Some of us are old enough to remember when college conferences were a source of regional pride and easy to understand.
The now-defunct Southwest Conference was made of schools in the Southwest: Arkansas and all the major Texas universities. The Big 10 was actually made up of 10 schools predominately in the Midwest, anchored by Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue, Northwestern, etc.
The Southeastern Conference was accordingly composed of schools in the southeast: Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and the like. The Big 8 had schools from Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, etc., while the Pac-12, once the Pac-8, housed the West Coast schools.
The winners of the Big 10 and the Pac-whatever met in the Rose Bowl; the Southwest Conference champ was host in the Cotton Bowl; and the SEC winner went to the Sugar Bowl. All the major bowl games were played on New Year’s Day. Now and then a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference made some noise, but it was mainly a basketball league for schools in the Carolinas and Maryland.
Life was simple.
Then media rights and money became the priority. It still is. Conferences like the Southwest Conference and Big 8 folded in 1996 and other conferences like the Mountain West and Big 12 were created.
Now the Pac-12 is headed for extinction. Stick a fork in them. They’re done.
USC and UCLA, cornerstones of the Pac-12, will join the Big 10 (now a 16-team conference) at the start of the 2024-25 season. Colorado, meanwhile, announced it is leaving the Pac-12 to return to the Big 12 Conference, which lost Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC. Meanwhile, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah, the remaining pillars of the Pac-whatever, are considering following Colorado to the Big 12, while Oregon, Washington, California, and Stanford are also being targeted by the Big 10.
A source with ties to the Pac-12 told Sportsnaut, “Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State,” are likely headed to the Big 12. “No one wants to stay in a dying league,” the source said.
Will media deal save Pac-12?
The Pac-12 is trying to stop the bleeding by signing a new media rights agreement with Apple TV. It currently is the only Power Five school that does not have a long-term media rights deal, and current negotiations continue under the likelihood of more teams like Oregon State and Washington State leaving for other conferences. Why in the world would Apple TV pay big money for a conference that has no teams of interest?
While Pac 12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff scrambles to save his sinking ship, the Big 12 has benefited from hiring Brett Yormark as its commissioner last August. Yormark, who has a broad background in the sports and entertainment business, is innovative, progressive, and a great salesman. He took the Barclays Center in Brooklyn from infancy and turned it into one of the top entertainment venues in the country despite competing with Madison Square Garden.
Last fall, Yormark made an immediate impact by negotiating a new media rights deal with ESPN and Fox Sports. Member schools will share an estimated $440 million annually in revenue. Colorado, for instance, is expected to make $31.7 million in annual television revenue throughout the Big 12 deal which runs through 2031.
“After careful thought and consideration, it was determined that a switch in conference would give CU Boulder the stability, resources, and exposure necessary for a long-term future success in a college athletics environment that is constantly evolving,” CU chancellor Philip DiStefano and athletic director Rick George said in a joint statement. “The Big 12’s national reach across three time zones as well as our shared creative vision for the future we feel makes it an excellent fit for CU Boulder, our students, faculty, and alumni.”
If stability was a key reason for moving to the Big 12, instability is a key reason why teams are leaving the Pac-12.
Big 10 presidents met on Thursday and, according to sources, approved to explore expansion and acquire more information on Oregon and Washington. That means the Pac-12 is on life-support as a major conference, and any deal with Apple TV may come too late to save it.
George Willis is a columnist for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.