Evaluating non-revenue sports' place in Pac-12, Big 12 expansion talks
From a UCLA perspective, it's easy to extrapolate the Bruins' success in non-revenue sports to the entirety of the Pac-12.
UCLA has officially won 119 national championships, or 132 if you include the football's claimed 1954 title, softball's vacated 1995 Women's College World Series and the 11 women's championships it won before the NCAA took full control of women's sports in 1983. But for simplicity's sake, let's just say the non-football and men's basketball teams in Westwood have accounted for 108 banners.
Crosstown rival USC is in a similar boat with 110 of such championships, while Stanford leads all schools with 127 – those three California universities are the only programs with more than 60, let alone 100. California ranks 11th in total NCAA championships and Oregon ranks 13th, with the schools winning 37 and 33 non-revenue titles, respectively. Colorado, Arizona State, Utah and Arizona are also in the top 35 for overall NCAA team championships.
The Pac-12, as a whole, is far and away the most dominant conference when it comes to women's and other non-revenue sports. Nobody else really comes close.
However, that doesn't mean every Pac-12 school has had heaps of national success in non-revenue sports.
Washington has a respectable nine NCAA championships, but only four of its teams have reached those heights. Oregon State has won four, but just one has come from a sport other than baseball and none have been won by women. Washington State has two NCAA titles, but one is an unofficial boxing championship from before World War II and the other was an indoor track & field championship 44 years ago.
The myth that every Pac-12 school is great at everything fuels a superiority complex that results in harmless banter most of the time, but could come back to bite the conference in the near future.
All of this is important because of the Pac-12's potential role in the upcoming conference realignment chaos.
Texas and Oklahoma are reportedly informing the Big 12 they will be leaving the conference in favor of the SEC next week. That leaves the remaining eight Big 12 programs in disarray, with everything from AAC poaching to a Pac-12 mega conference merger currently on the table.
Ultimately, the decision of whether or not the Pac-12 will invite the Big 12's leftovers to join their conference is up to commissioner George Kliavkoff, the university presidents and the programs' athletic directors. Still, it is an important discussion to have, and it is worth addressing a lot of the points being thrown out there by fans, the media and others.
A popular argument from those who oppose expansion is that the potential additions do not have the success and prestige in women's and other non-revenue sports required to join the Pac-12.
For one, that point ignores the fact that football makes the vast majority of the money in college athletics. UCLA football brought in $41.3 million of operating revenue in 2019, good for roughly 65.4% of the athletic department's team-driven revenue – and that's at a school with a struggling football program and top-tier non-revenue teams. Add in men's basketball's $12.0 million in operating revenue that calendar year, and those two teams accounted for 84.4% of UCLA Athletics' team-driven revenue.
The Pac-12 and every university in it want to make the most money possible, so whatever path would lead to the conference and its members maximizing their annual cash flow is the one that will probably be followed. This isn't to diminish the importance and success of the women's and non-revenue teams, it's just a way to frame how the powers that be will likely approach this crossroad in college sports.
Putting finances aside, let's get back to the argument of non-revenue competitiveness from these Big 12 programs.
One of the schools whose name has been tossed around the most in relation to Pac-12 expansion is Oklahoma State. The Cowboys and Cowgirls have won 52 NCAA championships, fourth-most behind only the Cardinal, Bruins and Trojans. Oklahoma State student-athletes have also won 178 individual titles as well, placing them 11th in the country for combined team and solo NCAA championships.
While that may be the best the Big 12 remnants have to offer, the other seven programs aren't exactly black holes. Iowa State has won 122 conference and 13 NCAA championships, in addition to seven women's national championships not governed by the NCAA at the time. TCU has won four NCAA championships, with all of them coming in either women's or co-ed sports.
In addition the Baylor's championship pedigree on the basketball court – most recently in men's but more notably in women's hoops – it also won a men's tennis national championship in 2004 by besting UCLA in the finals. Texas Tech has won two NCAA titles of its own, West Virginia has won 19 NCAA rifle championships alone and Kansas boasts eight track & field championships to put alongside their three men's basketball titles.
The Big 12 sent five teams to the NCAA women's basketball tournament this year – just one fewer than the Pac-12 despite having two fewer member schools.
Kansas State is one of two Power Five programs not to own a single NCAA championship, so maybe they end up on the cutting room floor. Either way, it's not like it's that much worse than Washington State's two trophies.
The fact of the matter is that the Pac-12 will still dominate the NCAA championship leaderboards regardless of who, if anyone, joins the family. Oregon State and Washington State don't currently drag down its "Conference of Champions" label, so it's naive to expect that Oklahoma State, Texas Tech or Kansas would moving forward.
If a merger or three-team expansion turns out to be the best move for the Pac-12 and its future, don't let this weird gatekeeping muddy that decision.
The mountains of championship trophies in Westwood, South Central, Palo Alto, Berkeley and Eugene aren't going anywhere.
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