Will the last school to leave the Pac-12 please turn out the lights?
The troubled Power Five conference, reeling from financial woes and defections, may be set to lose two more teams. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Friday afternoon that Arizona State and Utah have both applied for formal membership in the Big 12.
According to the report, Big 12 presidents and chancellors will have a teleconference Friday night to discuss the two schools’ applications.
The Big 12 has already welcomed two Pac-12 schools in the past week, with Colorado voting to switch conferences, followed by Arizona on Thursday. And the Pac-12 lost two other schools, Oregon and Washington, earlier Friday, with both headed to the Big 10.
Of course, the entire Pac-12 business model had already been thrown into chaos with the defection last December of UCLA and USC to the Big Ten. The 108-year-old Pac-12 now faces an expiring media rights deal, coupled with the loss of most of its marquee teams.
College football observers quickly reacted to the latest realignment news, with many questioning where the Pac-12 goes from here — or if there is even a path forward.
In all honesty, the next headline we should see after the one about Arizonan and Arizona State leaving for the Big 12 is the one about George Kliavkoff resigning as commissioner of the Pac-12. If he loses more teams, he's lost his authority and should just quit.
— John Hornberg (@JHornberg) August 4, 2023
https://twitter.com/LouisOliverio/status/1687530305345749003
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.