Realignment Rewind

08/07/2023 Realignment Rewind

By: Jeff Yoder

Dismantling of the Pac-12 Continues With Oregon & Washington Joining Big Ten, Arizona, Arizona State & Utah to Big 12

College sports has undergone a transformation these last few weeks, and we’ve been unable to sift through the chaos until the dust settles. It may never come to rest, but the college sports landscape we once knew looks completely different. After years of realignment due to media rights deals, the 2023 shift is the beginning of an all-out blitz on the amateur collegiate sports model. With the introduction of NIL deals (name, image, and likeness) and a transfer portal free-for-all, things have changed fast. And while we don’t have the capacity to recap all of the logistics, we can keep you up-to-date on which schools are moving where, and what it means.

 

Conference Realignment Tracker

 

Pac-12 → Big Ten

USC, UCLA, Oregon & Washington

 

Pac-12 → Big 12

Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah

 

Pac-12 Remaining Schools (For Now)

Oregon State, Washington State, California, Stanford

 

Why is the Pac-12 Falling Apart?

The expiration of the Pac-12’s media rights deal with ESPN and FOX in 2024 allows programs to exit the conference without a fee. More money is elsewhere, and the West Coast’s “Power-5” darling is crumbling. It remains to be seen if the Pac-12 will cling to the final few programs and rebuild the conference with new additions, but the damage is done. Essentially, the Pac-12 is down to just four remaining schools (listed above).

 

What It Means for College Sports

The two Los Angeles schools (USC & UCLA) joined the Big Ten a few months back, but Oregon and Washington followed suit in the past week. Both programs won’t receive the same revenue share as the Big Ten member schools (at least not yet). And in response, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah joined Colorado in shifting to the Big 12. Now, each of those two conferences (Big Ten & Big 12) stretches from coast to coast, and they’ll be able to tap into every available market in order to keep up with the SEC’s football brand. Next? The ACC is certainly nervous, but they’re making strides toward expansion (or at least, survival).

 

Follow the money. College sports is changing, and it’s going to continue.

 

Read More

The Ringer: The Imminent Death of the Pac-12 Marks the Point of No Return for College Sports

ESPN: Remaining College Football Conference Realignment Questions

Yahoo! Sports: Colorado’s Deion Sanders on Pac-12 Exodus: ‘Everybody’s Chasing the Bag’

 

Photo: Stephen Lam / Getty Images