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Pac-12 Makes Expansion Announcement — And Nothing Happened

The conference backs off from adding any more teams at this point in time.
Dan Raley|
Pac-12 Makes Expansion Announcement — And Nothing Happened
Pac-12 Makes Expansion Announcement — And Nothing Happened

Forty-five years ago, the then-Pac-8 Conference, after much angst and some carefully veiled threats meant to move things along, extended invitations for Arizona and Arizona State to join in 1978. 

The University of Washington and the four other Northwest schools were against this expansion, convinced it would give the southern schools a 6-4 voting bloc on all matters. USC and UCLA suggested they might drop out and become independents if it didn't happen.

A decade ago, the Pac-10 became the Pac-12 after it added Colorado and Utah for 2011 once Texas and Texas A&M flirted with coming west and decided against this collegiate consolidation. The Texas thing didn't work because that school intended to form the Longhorn Network for a decided competitive advantage, and the Pac-10 wasn't keen on that arrangement. 

People today ask: What big Texas advantage? It still hasn't happened yet, hence the football coaching change from Tom Herman to former UW coach Steve Sarkisian this past offseason.

On Thursday, everyone was poised for yet another conference realignment in response to the recent SEC action of picking up Texas and Oklahoma — and nothing happened. No Oklahoma State, Baylor, TCU or Texas Tech. No proposed Pac-14 or Pac-16.

What's up with that?

Well, two days earlier, the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC very publicly formed an alliance for football and basketball, a loose agreement without any contractural teeth that indicated they would work together to schedule high-profile games and create special events, such as a preseason or midseason basketball tournament, and in concert hopefully draw lucrative TV rights. 

The commissioners suggested they did this in order to preserve their conferences, too ... rather than enlarge them. In a sense, they came together to prevent each college loop from stealing teams from the other. They did this possibly to save the Big 12 from total extinction.

None of these three conferences appeared eager to form bigger memberships, which tend to make it even harder to win a league championship and advance to the playoffs. Which makes the TV money split further diluted in-house.

No, the alliance was formed to be a bandaid, not a lynchpin for further eroding old rivalries and traditions. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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