Ahead of plans to exit the Pac-12 after his season, schools like UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Colorado reportedly wanted the conference to pay for their decisions to leave it.
The 2023 college football season is underway, and it very well could be the final one for the legendary West Coast conference the Pac-12. There has been no bigger story in college athletics over the last year than the league’s stunning downfall in this new era of super conferences.
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It all started last year when, arguably, the conference’s two most iconic brands UCLA and USC announced that they would be taking their sports programs to the Big-10 starting in 2024. While those departures were a massive blow, no one expected it to set up what has become a mass exodus from the league ever since.
It took much longer than expected for the Pac-12 to finally find a new media rights deal for future seasons, however, when an agreed-upon proposal with AppleTV+ was shown to conference schools, it turned out to be a sign that it was time to move on to bigger and better leagues in the sport. Soon after, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State revealed they were also leaving the conference after this season.
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Exiting schools wanted Pac-12 to pay for fees to join other conferences
Oregon State and Washington State are now the only teams left in the Pac-12 beyond this season and the two schools have been doing all they can to keep the conference alive. That includes a recent restraining order to block a planned meeting of the conference board.
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However, during the hearing where Oregon State and Washington State were granted the restraining order a stunning detail was revealed. The Athletic’s college football writer Nicole Auerbach reported “that the outgoing schools wanted to use Pac-12 money to cover part of their transition costs.”
It is a bold move considering those schools chose to leave the conference of their own accord so they can earn what they feel will be better payouts by being a part of conferences like the Big-10 and Big-12.
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During the Monday hearing, the Pac-12 reportedly asked for interim protections that allow them to “keep its lights on and its critical employees in place,” as well as an agreement about how money is spent for daily and monthly needs as the conference stares down the barrel of this being its final season.
