David Hookstead
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The PAC-12 continues to look for ways to survive amid realignment.
USC and UCLA are officially leaving the conference for the Big Ten in 2024, and there’s been serious chatter as many as four more teams could join them for greener pastures in the B1G.
Oregon is believed to be the Big Ten’s top target if Kevin Warren and the conference continue to pillage the PAC-12. With the PAC-12 in absolute survival mode, the conference might be thinking about expanding, according to John Canzano.
Canzano wrote the following in part about where the PAC-12 might be right now with its thinking when it comes to what happens next:
But right now, I’m leaning into the idea of the remaining 10 members staying together in this cycle and adding a few more universities via expansion.
Expansion would immediately help the Pac-12’s mission to hold itself together. If you add new members, especially at a fractional media-rights distribution in the initial 2-4 years, you could sprinkle some of that leftover revenue on Oregon and Washington to keep them happy.
Canzano listed Fresno State, San Diego State, Boise State, UNLV, SMU and San Diego State all as possible targets for the PAC-12 if the conference attempts expansion to survive.
There’s just one problem with the PAC-12 attempting expansion as a last ditch effort to survive, and it’s the fact the conference has very little leverage right now.
If it was known for a fact no more teams were leaving for the Big Ten, the conference would actually probably be in a stable position to at least move forward as is and maybe pluck a few MWC teams.
However, without a locked down media deal in place, there’s really no incentive to join the PAC-12, and who is going to give the conference a media deal when many more teams might be leaving?
Essentially, the PAC-12 selling point to smaller programs is there *might* be stability in the future, but that’s far from certain right now.
As I’ve said many times before, George Kliavkoff seems to be doing his best Baghdad Bob impression at every possible opportunity, but he’s not convincing.
You can’t tell me the American tanks have been crushed when I can watch them speeding towards Baghdad on the city limits.
The PAC-12 seems to be in serious trouble, and it’s incredibly unlikely an expansion hail Mary saves it based on the information we know right now.
I love that SDSU is listed twice. Having said that, why would SDSU or Boise State make the jump from a relatively healthy MWC to a crippled Pac 12? Plus, there’s chatter here in San Diego that the Big 12 is making inquiries. Big 12 is a lot more stable than the Pac 12 right now.
If Gov. Moonbeam Jr. manages to cancel UCLA’s move to the Big 10, though, that might change things. Swapping out Stanford for UCLA may keep USC and Big 10 happy, but UCLA is far more of a draw than the Cardinal ever will be.