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Here are three scenarios we believe the Pac-12 should pursue: It should consider kneecapping the Mountain West and getting creative with membership in both major sports. This time, the Pac-12 should take the lifeline tossed by the CFP presidents and adopt a more Machiavellian approach. The conference was passive last summer, opting against expansion as the Big 12 teetered following the loss of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC. The most likely outcome calls for the 10 schools to unify around a medium-term media rights contract.Īnd if that’s the case … if the 10 schools coalesce … they should incorporate the reality of a 12-team playoff field into its strategic initiatives. Our view remains unchanged: Pac-12 survival is a slight favorite over Pac-12 extinction. In that scenario, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah would undoubtedly bolt for the Big 12 and, as we explained previously in a look at the future of the Power Five, the 107-year-old bastion of college sports on the West Coast would dissolve. Until the Big Ten definitively ends its predation phase, the Pac-12 remains vulnerable to losing at least two and possibly four members (Washington, Oregon, Stanford and Cal) to the league that was once its peer and partner. Meanwhile, the Pac-12’s existential crisis has entered its third month. We’ve reached the point of the Power Five consolidating into a Power Three, with the ACC’s uneconomical structure being the next to go after the Pac-12’s demise is official.As conferences decide whether to expand and schools mull whether to switch leagues, the impact on playoff access has enhanced significance. Greg Sankey wants to ‘keeps the SEC in contiguous states, which supports a reasonable geography among like-minded universities.’ He believes in the conference’s ‘collective strength.’ You certainly can’t rule out teams like Clemson and Florida State, who already have in-state rivalries with SEC schools and the best odds of accepting a conference realignment invite, but talks of Michigan and Ohio State from a year ago are officially dead via that edict.

Sure, the Notre Dame door appears to be closing due to contractual demands from NBC, but the Big 12’s pursuit of the Fighting Irish feels like a natural parallel takeover to the Big Ten’s Los Angeles adds and the SEC’s ‘ super league‘ status. Acquiring Texas and Oklahoma feel like the beginning of the floodgates opening further for the country’s dominant conference. When the music stops in the next conference realignment musical chairs, the SEC feels likely to strike.

Where the SEC goes next in the conference realignment merry-go-round Whenever the next shoe drops, several more seem sure to follow. The barebones of the Pac-12 could be next.Īrizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, and Washington were already reportedly targeted by the Big 12 before, and an official announcement feels like an imminent domino given the departures of UCLA and USC to the Big Ten. The Fighting Irish may be the tip of the iceberg.

This, to Fly War Eagle, is a sign that the Big 12 is about to get aggressive in conference realignment. Given the recent Notre Dame rumors, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. There is no Big 12-Pac-12 merger in the works any longer after both sides decided not to align in conference realignment. By Andrew Hughes 2 months ago Follow Tweet