By Aidan Joly
The Pac-12 took yet another hit on Thursday after it became official that the University of Colorado will leave the league for the greener pastures of the Big 12 in 2024.
Colorado was arguably the school that had the best options out of anyone else in the league and it turns out they had the ability and motivation to move on from the Pac-12 and return to a league that called home for more than six decades. A surge in popularity with the school was caused by hiring Deion Sanders as the school’s new football coach, too.
If we are keeping score at home, that is now three schools that will leave the Pac-12 next summer after both USC and UCLA will head to the Big Ten in the summer of 2024, leaving the league with just nine schools moving toward as of this writing.
To add onto that, rumors continue to swirl that the Pac-12 could lose up to more schools in the coming weeks and that it might be the larger brands that remain. Oregon, Washington, Arizona or Arizona State would make the most sense.
Now at 13 schools, the Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormack certainly isn’t done expanding. Some other schools in other leagues, such as UConn, remain possibilities too. The Huskies would have to pay a seven-figure exit fee to leave the Big East though. Yormack has said he would like to cap expansion at 14 once Oklahoma and Texas leave, so it is going to be a mad scramble for that 14th spot.
It all comes down to passive leadership within the Pac-12. In 2021, when Texas and Oklahoma announced that they would leave the Big 12 for the SEC, the Pac-12 had a chance to chew at the bones of a wounded league. Instead, the powers that be stood pat and let the Big 12 re-tool and finally take away schools from them. Two years ago, the Big 12 seemed unstable and perhaps headed down a similar road that the Pac-12 is currently heading down, has struck a blow to the Pac-12.
How will the Pac-12 remain afloat?
San Diego State seemed like the easy call, but the Pac-12 could not get its media rights deal straight fast enough, enough time for the Mountain West to double its exit fee, a move to try to prevent that program from leaving. For now, SDSU stays in the Mountain West.
The loss of prestige is hitting the league hard. It has now lost both the Los Angeles and Denver markets, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see them lose at least part of the Arizona market in short order. It went from having four schools that have won football national championships to one. In basketball, after UCLA leaves, only one current school will have won a national title since 1959.
Oregon and Washington have talked to other leagues too. The move here needs to be to double down and keep them happy, which would probably have to be a bigger cut of media money, which the league has talked with multiple platforms in recent years, but nothing has come to fruition.
Rumors say that the Pac-12 has been asking for $500 million annually, which breaks down to $50 million per school in a league that just lost its two biggest west coast brand. An outlandish ask.
The Big 12 essentially took away a chance for the league to partner with Fox or ESPN due to their deals, while the Big Ten has partnered with CBS, Fox and NBC for a rich deal. Why would networks pay similar money for the Pac-12?
Apple still remains an option for the Pac-12, which might be sweetened with the league’s connections to Silicon Valley. Still, it’s not one that would make a ton of sense.
All in all here, it’s hard to see the Pac-12 completely dying. It’s likely to stay around in some form, but the relevance remains to be seen.
The last bit of irony: Colorado left the Big 12 back in 2011 because of its lack of stability. 12 years later, it heads back to that league in search of stability.
How about that?
AJ Hoops 