Arizona, Arizona State, Utah all formally apply to leave for Big-12
Mere hours after it was reported that Washington and Oregon would be heading to the Big Ten, the Pac-12’s exodus continues. Pending approval from the Big 12, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah will all be leaving the Pac-12 to join Colorado in the Big 12 in 2024, Brett McMurphy of Action Network reported Friday afternoon.
We are witnessing the beheading of the Pac-12 as we know … or the Pac-4–whatever you (or the internet) want to refer to it as.
Eight schools have now announced their departures over the 13, including the four aforementioned programs. There are four schools left in the conference (for now): Washington State, Oregon State, California and Stanford.
Meanwhile, the Big 12 continues to grow. Texas and Oklahoma will be departing to the SEC in 2024, but will still be expanding to 16 teams–tied with the SEC and two short of the Big Ten’s now-18 teams–by the integration of UCF, BYU, Houston, Cincinnati, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah.
According to McMurphy, the “four corners” elected to join the Big 12 due to the conference’s “stability” in addition to its “more lucrative financial outlook.” The Pac-12 has still yet to finalize a new media rights deal, which it’s been negotiating for over a year, while the Big 12 reached a new media rights deal worth nearly $2.3 billion last year, which begins in 2025-26 and will run through 2030-31.
This historic day in college athletics still calls for more questions than answers in lieu of the circus of events.
Does the Pac-12 attempt to merge with the Mountain West–midway through its six-year, $270 million media rights deal that runs through 2025-26–to form the fourth, albeit much weaker, mega-conference? Does the Pac-12 try to continue to poach San Diego State–even though it already failed to do so this offseason–Boise State, UNLV, Fresno State and/or Colorado State, among others, from the MW? Will it try to do business with the American or even its transcontinental conferences in the Sun Belt or Conference USA?
Exit fees–such as the one San Diego State would have to pay to the MW ($34 million)–play a factor, but in an age where new money is the loudest mouth, these are fair questions to propose. Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona will rightfully be getting the bag from revenue share and media rights from the Big-12 that they wouldn’t be getting from the Pac-12–even before UCLA and USC announced their departure last summer.
It might be time for all of us to collectively refresh ourselves for which teams are in which conference again! Or not, because at this rate, it’ll change again six hours from now!
What’s next? Let us know in the comments!
This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.
