Big 12 to vote on adding Arizona State, Utah: ‘The Pac-12 is done’
By ADAM ZAGORIA
The Big 12 Conference will vote potentially as soon as Friday night on adding Arizona State and Utah beginning in 2024 after the league’s presidents and CEOs met Thursday to approve Arizona, one Big 12 source said Friday morning.
If all three schools follow Colorado to the Big 12, the league would be at 16 schools in 2024 when Texas and Oklahoma depart for the SEC. Arizona has yet to officially announce a move to the Big 12, and the Pac-12’s presidents and chancellors are reportedly expected to meet again Friday.
“The Pac-12 is done,” the source said. “The whole thing’s falling apart.”
The storied league, which former UCLA star Bill Walton calls the “Conference of Champions,” dates back to 1915 when it was called the Pacific Coast Conference.
The Big Ten is also feasting on the Pac-12 by reportedly targeting Oregon and Washington to join the league along with UCLA and USC, which are set to enter in 2024. That would bring the league to 18 schools, and if Cal and Stanford also join it would increase to 20.
The AP reported “no formal offer has been made to Oregon and Washington, but the framework of a deal was presented that would have the Ducks and Huskies enter the conference with an annual payout in the low-to-mid $30 millions.
“The schools could also receive an advance on future payments that could increase the total payout to more than $40 million for the first several years they are in the conference, though it would be subtracted from future payouts, two people said.
“That payout would be about half what current Big Ten members will receive when all its new television deals fully kick in next year, but still more than what Washington and Oregon are guaranteed to receive from a recently presented potential media rights deal the Pac-12 has on the table from Apple.”
Meantime, with the Pac-12 seemingly falling apart, Washington State and Oregon State could be headed to the Mountain West.
As for the Big 12, the league this year added BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF and will be at 16 teams after Texas and Oklahoma leave.
The potential additions of four former Pac-12 schools “just gives us stability,” the Big 12 source said.
“A year and a half ago, we were the league that everybody thought was going to be kind of picked apart and it turned out to be the Pac-12 and that’s pretty remarkable,” the source added.
“[Big 12 Commissioner] Brett [Yormark] deserves some credit and [former Commissioner Bob] Bowlsby got those four teams and if you look at it now, it doesn’t seem like the greatest adds, but it stabilized us for a little bit.”
Of the demise of the Pac-12, the source said “it’s just crazy.”
“Imagine having no Pac-12,” the source added. “It’s just unbelievable.”
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