Dating back to 1915, the PAC-12 Conference has been one of the most successful and storied conferences in the history of collegiate athletics. Being the home of West Coast powerhouses such as Oregon, UCLA, Washington, USC, Arizona, and more gave the conference the opportunity to dominate the Pacific market for college sports. However, even with the monopoly over the West Coast, as of next year, the conference will cease to exist.
Back in 2011, the PAC-12, then known as the PAC-10, added Colorado from the struggling Big 12 Conference and Utah to their ranks. They had the opportunity to end the Big 12, potentially poaching powerhouses Texas and Oklahoma along with their in-state rivals, but it never panned out, something that would ultimately haunt the PAC. After ten steady years being a member of the Power 5, the top five conferences in college athletics, it was time to renew a TV deal for the conference, as all major conferences had done already. However, the PAC-12 hit a severe roadblock: Their offers were for much less money than the other major conferences. With no TV deal set, the two Los Angeles schools, USC and UCLA, jumped ship first in July of 2022, announcing their move to the typically Midwestern conference, the Big Ten.
For the next year, the PAC-12 continued to try and work on their TV deal, but to no avail. Their best offer was not even from a major network, but rather from Apple TV, relying on streaming to drive viewership, something the college market had yet to see. This deal was unsatisfactory to much of the conference, and on July 27, 2023, Colorado announced their return to the Big 12. This marked the beginning of the end for the century-old conference. A week later on August 4, the TV deal was officially rejected by the remaining members, and just two hours later, it was reported that Oregon and Washington were joining their Southern California compatriots in the Big Ten. A couple more hours after that, it was announced that Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah would all join Colorado in the Big 12. That was the final blow. The conference that the PAC-12 could have killed back in 2011 was the one who delivered the PAC-12’s own blow. The PAC-12 is down to four: Cal, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington State, and it is really sad for all to see this historic conference go down. Jake Dickert, head coach of the Washington State Cougars football team, summed this whole situation up with just four perfect words: “What are we doing?” In the eyes of many, realignment has ruined college football, and in Dickert’s eyes, the sport is going in the wrong direction.
