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.
Sources: Both Utah and Arizona State have applied for formal membership to the Big 12 Conference, and there’s a call tonight with the Big 12's presidents and chancellors to discuss their membership. Arizona applied and was approved yesterday.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 4, 2023
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.
As it stands now, the Pac-12 Conference is down to 4 teams in 2024😳 pic.twitter.com/UdSRMmDtU7
— On3 (@On3sports) August 4, 2023
@TheSunDevils The PAC 12 is a sinking ship. Save yourself while you still can.
— Cowboy Medic (@OSUNinjaTurtle) August 4, 2023
The Big 12 got blindsided by Texas and Oklahoma leaving
Since then they have rebounded and expanded into Ohio, Florida, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona
Pretty impressive
PAC 12 sat by and let themselves get raided
— The Victory Bell (@VictoryBellOSU) August 4, 2023
Aged like milk pic.twitter.com/0pICqCnyIg
— Barstool Colorado (@CUBarstool) August 4, 2023
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
So what does the PAC-12 do from here? Try to pick from the Mountain West? Maybe steal Big12 members in return? Or is the conference just doomed?
— Ben Westfall (@Voice_of_MU) August 4, 2023
