The Big Ten and Big 12 are poaching the Pac-12 to death in conference realignment

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

How the Big Ten and Big 12 are putting the Pac-12 as we know it on life support

So…let’s talk about the Pac-12 and realignment, shall we?

(/pulls up chair Captain America style)

Well, it’s not looking great, doc. With the Big Ten presidents authorizing the conference to explore adding Oregon and Washington in the coming months, the Pac-12 is essentially on life support.

So, let’s take a look at where the conference stands as of right now, and who’s already out of the conference in 2024.

Who’s out?

USC and UCLA have one leg in the Pac-12 and one leg in the Big Ten. If you go to UCLA’s website, they have a countdown to the exact second they can leave for the Big Ten. This deal went down last year, and by 2024, the two cash cows of the Pac-12 will be a part of the country’s most prominent Midwestern conference.

Colorado has already made their intentions known, announcing in July that they were entering the Big 12 in 2024. The Big 12 has already approved it and announced their return on July 26.

So, for now, that leaves: Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington, Washington State, Utah, Stanford and Cal as the remaining schools standing in the Pac-12.

For now.

Are any of the schools still standing considering leaving?

Yes, Arizona and Arizona State might be on their way out as well. The Big 12 is voting on Thursday on whether to admit both schools (and perhaps Utah) to complete the remodeling of the Big 12. Arizona and ASU have both voted in their own universities to complete a move away from the Pac-12. So yeah, the second largest cash cows are also potentially out, with Arizona taking their vaunted (and rich) basketball program to the Big 12 to battle Kansas every year.

As mentioned up above, Oregon and Washington are possibly on their way out of the Pac-12 as well. With the Big Ten “exploring” the possibility of adding the two teams, Washington has already put plans in motion.

No words coming from Oregon yet, although we’ll probably hear from them in the coming days.

So what can the Pac-12 do?

So … the Pac-12 has a very limited set of options.

What they can do is get the other 9 or so schools together and try to reunite everyone under the Apple TV+ deal that was rumored to be on the table. It’s not the most lucrative deal, but if it’s done in the style of the MLS deal with Apple TV then maybe something can work there. In addition, they can call San Diego State (who openly was exploring moving to the Pac-12 in June before deciding to stay in the Mountain West) and see if they would actually like to stay around this time.

They also could just wait it out and see if Oregon and Washington do, in fact, leave. The Big Ten is very big (no pun intended) on looking like they did no wrong, but actually being the people to start the final picking of the Pac-12’s bones. so they’ll say that they’re waiting on something else to happen before diving in.

Like clockwork.

They should just go ahead and do it, man. Stop acting holier than thou because you say you use fake ass academic standards to admit schools on the pretense that this is an academic conference. It’s not, it’s about money and football and you should admit it already.

A crucial part of this is if Oregon and Washington do indeed jump ship, their cut of the pie will be smaller than what was initially thought. Although, it’ll still probably be more than what the Pac-12 can offer.

So yeah, unless that Pac-12 deal gets real good, REAL soon, it might a wrap.