Three things the Pac-12 needs to do in order to survive Colorado to the Big 12

Colorado making the jump to the Big 12 has potential to be the nail in the coffin

One year removed from USC and UCLA announcing their intentions to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, Colorado is now set to be leaving the conference for the Big 12. 

A move that not only takes the wind out of whatever momentum the Pac-12 had going in their media rights negotiations, but could be a domino that ends up contributing to the collapse of the conference all together. The reason for this being the fact that whenever the Pac-12 expansion was discussed, the conference made it very clear they were focused on their media rights deal first.

Something that makes sense if there were signs of progress, but as of last week when Colorado asked to see numbers there were none. This news has sent the college football world into a frenzy, which is why I've decided to break down the three things that the Pac-12 absolutely must do in order to survive.

Keep Oregon and whoever else is looking

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This one shouldn't come as too much of a surprise but murmurs are now indicating that since the Big Ten is not interested in expanding at this time, Oregon could be looking for a new landing spot. If the Pac-12 has any hope of survival, keeping Oregon, Arizona, and whoever else may look to the Big 12 for an invite is a must. Keeping Oregon maintains your biggest remaining brand, and it also gives the conference something to build off of and expand further. 

Expand now

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The whole notion of expanding once the media rights deal was cool and dandy in theory, but it obviously has come back to bite the Pac-12. Many insiders believed the Pac-12 should have expanded first then secured a deal, and now they are on life support and will need to rely on expansion to save them. A less than ideal situation to be in. The media rights deal will be even more of a tough sell to conglomerates now, so adding programs and showing stability would make a huge difference. The Pac-12 needs to invite their top two candidates of San Diego State and SMU, but they cannot stop there. Adding Colorado State to retain the Denver market seems like a fairly obvious move, and adding another program like a UNLV or Hawaii. The fourth slot is a wild card, but the Pac-12 may not be in position to be valuing academics and geography as much as they have. 

Secure a deal

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If the Pac-12 is able to retain everyone who is still in the conference while also adding programs that can help boost their market, this part should still be possible. This needs to be priority No. 3 on the list though, because without the first two this doesn't happen.