Arizona State joins the Big 12

Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah are now all officially members of the Big 12 conference. Only a few months ago, UCLA and USC announced that they would be leaving the Pac-12 for the Big 10 after the 2023-2024 academic year. The move was prompted after the Big 10 secured media rights with CBS and NBC on top of the massive deal the conference has with FOX. 

What is next for the remaining teams?

The remaining 10 teams attempted to be patient with the league to find a new media rights deal. The current media rights deal with ESPN expires after the 2023-2024 season. After ESPN said it was no longer interested in broadcasting Pac-12 games the search was on to find a new suitor. After months of searching, the Pac-12 was down to two major suitors, CW and Apple.

Unfortunately for the Pac-12, they did not act swiftly and CW instead signed a deal with the ACC instead which will broadcast football and basketball through the 2028 season. Along came Apple with a streaming package solely on Apple TV +. As of now, Apple broadcasts select MLB games and that is it for live sports. When the streaming package was presented to the remaining teams they were not in favor of the direction of the league. Colorado and Coach Prime left for the Big 12 and then the scramble was on.

Mass exodus to the Big 12 and Big 10

Oregon and Washington were admitted to the Big 10 on Friday. The pair will start there in the 2024-2025 season. Almost immediately after those two teams left the two Arizona schools and Utah announced that they had been accepted into the Big 12. Those three schools all along planned to act together. It didn’t matter whether that was to a different conference or stay in the Pac-12. Sometimes even rivals can work together for a common cause.

So what is left of the “Pac-12?” 

Oregon State, Washington State, Cal, and Stanford are the only four teams that remain in the conference. It is unknown what the four schools will do down the road. Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah, Arizona State, Arizona, USC, and UCLA will all join their new conferences on July 1, 2024.

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