Is Today the Day the Pac-12 Conference Dies? And Where Does That Leave Cal?
Talk about your Black Fridays.
Today — Aug. 4, 2023 — might be remembered as the day the Pac-12 Conference officially died after 108 years.
Reports from multiple credible media sources on Friday morning said that Oregon and Washington were in the final stages of negotiating to join the Big Ten.
Later Friday it was reported that both schools have been accepted as members of the Big Ten beginning in the summer of 2024. The Big Ten made it official Friday night, announcing that Oregon and Washington will join its conference starting in the 2024-25 school year.
With USC and UCLA already headed there a year from now, and Colorado, Arizona, Utah and Arizona State joining the Big 12, the Pac-12 is on life support with diminishing hopes of survival.
Late Friday it was reported by Pete Thamel of ESPN that Arizona State and Utah have been approved by the Big 12 to become members of that conference along with Arizona and Colorado, which leaves Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State as the remaining Pac-12 schools without a clear future.
Friday night the Big 12 announced that Utah and Arizona State have been added to its conference starting in the 2024-25 school year.
Early Friday ESPN, Yahoo and Brett McMurphy of Action Sports HQ had all reported the news of Oregon and Washington's expected departure just after 9:40 a.m. PT.
Here’s what Dan Wetzel and Ross Dellenger of Yahoo said about the scenario:
The four remaining schools — Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State — will need to regroup, either on their own or together. If the Pac-12 survives as a brand, it will be unrecognizable to its reputation as the "Conference of Champions" that served as the pre-eminent college athletics league out west for generations.
And this from ESPN early Friday:
The Big Ten is expected to move ahead with formal offer letters for Oregon and Washington, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel on Friday.
Sources said a vote by the conference -- which is expected to be unanimous -- would take place Friday to formalize the two schools' admission, barring any last-minute snags.
The situation has been fluid for days, but Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff’s inability on Tuesday to get the nine remaining conference presidents to agree to a media rights proposal involving an Apple TV steaming deal has triggered a flurry of activity.
The tide seemed to change by the minute on Friday, or at least that’s how the reporting characterized things. At one point, the Ducks and Huskies appeared certain to depart. Then there was reporting Oregon wasn’t so committed to the move.
Now it seems all that’s left to dissolve the Pac-12 are signatures from the significant parties on paperwork that would make the change official.
No response yet from Cal officials, who must be scrambling to figure out their Plan B . . . or C or D or E . . .
Talk just a day or two ago was that the Big Ten might welcome Oregon, Washington, Cal and Stanford. Then the two Northwest schools, whose football programs. in particular, have been more successful in recent years, emerged as the Big Ten’s preferred targets.
Maybe the Big Ten circles back and begins courting the Bears and Cardinal. Maybe.
Cal and Stanford would offer the Big Ten the prestige of adding two of the world’s elite academic institutions, each located in the Bay Area with its ideal weather, flourishing tech industry and millions of TV households.
But neither school has competed well in football or men’s basketball in recent years, diminishing their attractions as athletic entities. Cal has suffered three consecutive losing seasons in football — and 13 in a row in conference play — and the Bears’ basketball program is on an unprecedented five-year stretch of losing seasons. Cal was 3-29 on the basketball court a year ago.
And the Bay Area’s population rarely translates to college sports viewing power. This is properly seen as a pro sports market, where fans tune in to watch the 49ers, Warriors or Giants but only perk up for college sports when the team is doing something special.
Where Cal ends up, if this becomes real and official, is unclear.
The Bears’ options are not great:
— Stick with Stanford, WSU and OSU and try to lure at least four more schools to rebuild a semblance of the Pac-12. But San Diego State already has said no thanks to the Pac-12. What would the Aztecs see in the remains of a once proud league? SMU? Who else?
— Join the Mountain West Conference, where their rivals would include SDSU, Fresno State and San Jose State. Nod bad, but how excited would Old Blues be to buy season tickets to that schedule, minus games vs. USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington?
— Go independent and play a schedule without a conference affiliation. Good luck with that. No TV contract and few viable scheduling options. Notre Dame makes it work. For better or worse, no one else is Notre Dame. Ask BYU.
— Put in a call to the Ivy League. Cal and Stanford certainly can relate academically to Harvard, Yale and Princeton, but athletically everything is on a different page, including scholarships. This would be a bigger drop from a sports prestige standpoint than joining the Mountain West. And that doesn’t take into account travel issues.
— Drop football and petition to join the West Coast Conference, whose men’s basketball ranking is top-10 nationally.
Nothing is carved in stone at this moment, but future of the Pac-12 has never appeared more bleak.
Cover photo by Kirby Lee, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
