It’s been six years since the Pac-12 had a team make the College Football Playoff, but that may finally change in 2023. It’s too bad for the dissolving conference that it didn’t come sooner.
If you’re a college football fan, you’re well aware of the Pac-12’s struggles on the gridiron in recent years. The league has been known more for how quickly all of its teams can be written off for playoff contention than for boasting legitimate national title contenders deep into November. Pac-12 men’s basketball has been similarly mediocre, though it’s at least had a few moments in the sun, such as during the 2021 NCAA tournament.
When your revenue-generating sports aren’t successful nationally, it has repercussions for everyone. Arguably the main reason the conference fell apart—why 10 of its 12 schools fled, even at a reduced share of revenue—was because it couldn’t agree on a new media rights deal. With its current deal set to expire in 2024, the league was the only one in the Power Five without a long-term contract.
If the Pac-12 had greater recent success on the football field and basketball court, its media rights would’ve been more attractive—and maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation now, with a 108-year-old conference down to two schools. And with the CFP expanding from four teams to 12 next season, the Pac-12 would have had easier access—which means more money. Alas, just as the league is finally getting itself together in college sports’ cash king, its members will soon be going separate ways.
In football, Friday’s Pac-12 championship will feature two top-six teams, Oregon vs. Washington, with a potential playoff berth on the line for both. Next year, they’ll both be in the Big Ten. In men’s basketball, Big 12-bound Arizona is the nation’s current No. 2 team, with a road win already over Duke. While there’s a long way to go, wouldn’t it be peak irony if the Pac-12’s 26-year national title drought in men’s hoops ends in this of all years?
It’s not just the revenue sports that are showing off. The Pac-12 is home to half of the top eight teams in the women’s basketball AP poll; next year, that quartet (UCLA, Stanford, USC, Colorado) will be in three different conferences. The league has long been home to elites in certain sports, whose programs are now facing plenty of uncertainty as they get shuffled around the country in a football-driven world.
Take women’s soccer, where powers UCLA and Stanford are both winners of multiple national titles and regularly produce NWSL players. Or swimming and diving, where Pac-12 schools have been home to Olympic gold medalists such as Katie Ledecky, Ryan Murphy, Missy Franklin and Simone Manuel. The Pac-12 was represented by 321 past, present and future students and current coaches at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning 108 individual medals across 18 sports. Both numbers were the most of any college conference.
As the Pac-12 gets ready to become the Pac-2, at least the conference can say it’s going out strong. But if it wins a title in football or men’s basketball, it will just open up more questions around what could’ve been. Regardless, there’s no stopping the latest round of radical realignment now. The Pac-12’s run was too little, too late. And too soon, the Pac-12 will be history.
