Without Warren being around to push for those schools, it may work out for their advantage. What will happen to Oregon and Washington if they are in a sort of purgatory awaiting their conference fate? They were near the top of Warren's list as he pushed the Big Ten for further expansion after the conference finalized its new media rights deal in August.īack then, Big Ten athletic directors and presidents were against such a move that would have included Stanford and California. The athletic directors at Clemson and FSU recently expressed concern about the Atlantic Coast Conference's outlook - the league's exclusive deal with ESPN does not expire more than decade - and suggested that changes will be needed for their respective institutions to compete at a high level.The belief is there will be clarity about the Pac-12's future long before April 17. The Pac-12, however, is not the only conference dealing with uncertainty about its look moving forward. CLICK HERE to download the CBS Sports Mobile App and get the latest on your team today. Get the fastest scores, stats, news, LIVE videos, and more. American Athletic Conference member SMU is the other school. San Diego State is reported as one of the primary targets for the Pac-12 should it take the expansion route, as SDSU would allow the Pac-12 to still have a member in Southern California, even if not in the Los Angeles media market. And shame on us - we would not be doing our jobs if we were not ready if there was an opportunity."Īt the same time, the Pac-12 could pick off a key Mountain West member should the league survive and add new members to strengthen its value. "But that is not what we are trying to do. "Those that want to believe we are trying to dismantle the Pac-12, they can believe that," Rhoades said in a recent interview with 365 Sports. Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades told 365 Sports on multiple occasions in the past 10 days that the Big 12 will be proactive if the Pac-12 media negotiations hit a wall and schools look to move. The Big 12 was already reported last summer as having interest in adding any additional Pac-12 defectors, and that talk has not gone away. League commissioner George Kliavkoff has yet to secure a new media rights deal for the Pac-12 once the current deal is up in 2024. Realignment chatter is arguably the strongest around the Pac-12 right now. In this scenario, the Pac-12 would be down to California, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State. The Pac-12, meanwhile, would be down to six schools with USC and UCLA scheduled to join the Big Ten in 2024. If the Arizona schools, Colorado and Utah were to join the Big 12, the conference would end up at 16 teams - the same number as the future Big Ten and SEC mega-conferences. This spring represents the final school year for the 10-team Big 12 before BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF arrive for the 2023-24 academic year Texas and Oklahoma will then depart on July 1, 2024, with the league scheduled to dip from 14 teams down to 12 at that time. The Big 12 has been in contact with Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah of the Pac-12 amid another possible round of conference expansion, CBS Sports confirmed.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |