Big 12 Expands as the Pac-12 Dissolves
Friday, August 4, 2023, will go down as a monumental day in the world of sports. At the beginning of the day, the Pac-12 presidents had a meeting about the future of the conference. There was optimism that all schools would sign an agreement to have their games streamed on Apple TV, but that failed.
After the meeting Oregon and Washington became fully engaged in talks with the Big 10 and by the end of the day they got an invite to the conference. The Big 10 is already adding USC and UCLA next season and Oregon and Washington will follow. The Big 10 will now have 18 members in the conference.
Before Oregon and Washington left Friday the week before that Colorado left the Pac-12 for the Big 12 and that started to turn heads. After Oregon and Washington’s departure, the Pac-12 had no hope of keeping the conference alive. Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah got an invite into the Big 12 later Friday. The Big 12 will now have 16 members in their conference after this season.
With all these teams leaving the Pac-12 there are only four left: California, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington State. The big question for these teams is what will they do. They don’t have enough to form their own conference and taking teams from the Moutain West conference probably won’t work.
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel Cal and Stanford are in discussion to join the ACC. Nothing is imminent and there has been no vote taken.
The Pac-12 said, “We remain focused on securing the best possible future for each of our member universities.” The Pac-12 was formed in 1916 and more than a century later it looks like it will not be around after this season. All teams that are leaving will not have to pay an exit fee as the conferences’ TV contracts are up after this season.
Statement from the Pac-12 Conference: pic.twitter.com/XKwEqw9A3C
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) August 5, 2023
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