Over 100 years of success it seems like the iconic PAC-12 conference is coming to an end. After Stanford and the University of California announced its departure from the conference on Friday September 1st, only two teams will remain by 2025. It started last summer when both UCLA and USC announced they will be joining the Big Ten conference following the 2024 season. Both universities are leaving due to financial reasons with the conference.
“I think it was a great idea for USC to leave. The Big Ten has more competition for them.” said junior Jacob Murillo. “I think they will succeed even when a lot of the players leave for the pros.”
Colorado, Oregon and Washington announced their goodbyes to the PAC-12 shortly after USC and UCLA did. Colorado has made some big changes athletically after hiring controversial head coach, Deion Sanders. Coach “Prime” Formerly coached at Jackson State, bringing nine players from the HBCU program to Colorado including his two sons Shilo and Shedeur Sanders. For Oregon, they have thrived in recent years as their heisman candidate quarterback Bo Nix looks to lead them to the Nation Championship.
“It was a good decision for Oregon to leave, but they should’ve joined the SEC instead of the Big Ten.” Said 12th grader and Oregon Ducks fan Austin Sanchez.” I believe they are better than the PAC-12, they are going to smack USC, UCLA, and Colorado.”
Both students believe the PAC-12 will not exist in the coming years and will not be back anytime soon.
“It’s going to be dead, done.” Austin said
Just about a week ago the Big-12 finally welcomed their former PAC-12 programs to the conference including Utah, Arizona and Arizona state. So what will happen to the PAC-12? As it seems like the only teams left in the conference. Washington state and Oregon state athletics are in question in the future. Just last week both universities were involved in a temporary restraining order against the PAC-12, which prevented the PAC-12 to meet as a board, as the meeting was deemed a “threat” to the future of the conference. OSU and WSU are also involved in suing for control over the PAC-12 as they believe the only two teams left in the conference should decide the future going forward.
With both schools still waiting to make an official decision for their respective programs It is speculated that because of small school departures from the mountain west conference, both the Beavers and the Cougars could look to fill the void in the Mountain West conference. WSU and OSU could also look to team up to leave for another top conference like the Big-12 or ACC. There is little the PAC-12 can do to keep their conference alive with no schools left, NIL getting more popular and the lack of happiness they have caused for their schools in the past. At last it seems like the 100-year historic conference will come to an end following this year.
