A last-ditch effort to keep the Pac-12 together appears to have fallen short on Friday morning.
Reports indicate that the premier athletic conference on the west coast failed to get a Grant of Rights signed during a meeting with university presidents, signaling a potential collapse as Oregon and Washington are again expected to join UCLA and USC in the Big Ten next year.
Pac-12 unable to get Grant of Rights signed this morning & "nothing has changed" as far as Oregon & Washington joining Big Ten, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. Ducks & Huskies still expected to be Big Ten bound when finances are worked out, sources said
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 4, 2023
The ACC’s Grant of Rights is the glue holding the conference together right now. It would require a Hail Mary negotiation and $120 million exit fee to leave the ACC before 2036 due to its airtight agreement. Without a Grant of Rights, the Pac-12 could be doomed for extinction.
Oregon and Washington were reportedly having second thoughts on Thursday night after being offered $30-35 million annually by the Big Ten, less than the full slice of the revenue share that UCLA and USC will be receiving. Subtracting about $10 million for additional travel expenses that come with the Big Ten’s nationwide schedule, the revenue distribution seemingly wouldn’t be much more than the projected $20 million that the Pac-12 is offering through its proposed Apple TV+ media rights deal. However, by Friday morning, Oregon and Washington once again appeared headed to the Big Ten, upping the number of members to 18 in 2024.
Sources tell SwimSwam that Arizona coaches were informed Thursday by the athletic director that their move to the Big 12 is happening, though it is not yet official. The Arizona Board of Regents ultimately controls the decision for both Arizona and Arizona State, and the Board reportedly would like to see the desert rivals stay in the same conference. Complicating Arizona’s potential exit is the fact that Arizona State has remained loyal to the Pac-12 under president Michael Crow. Last week, Colorado announced it was departing for the Big 12, and Utah could soon follow suit as well.
That could leave just four schools — Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, and Washington State — who remain committed to the Pac-12. Two of them — Cal and Stanford — are already being courted by the Big Ten.
Pac-12 Schools As of 2024
- Arizona (M/W swim & dive) – rumored to Big 12
- Arizona State (M/W swim & dive) – rumored to Big 12
- Cal (M/W swim & dive) – rumored to Big Ten
- Oregon (No swim & dive) – rumored to Big Ten
- Oregon State (No swim & dive)
- Stanford (M/W swim & dive) – rumored to Big Ten
- Utah (M/W swim & dive) – rumored to Big 12
- Washington (No swim & dive) – rumored to Big Ten
- Washington State (W swim & dive)
USC (M/W swim & dive)– left for Big TenUCLA (W swim & dive)– left for Big TenColorado (No swim & dive)– left for Big 12
For context, Big Ten schools will receive a minimum of $50 million a year with games primarily appearing on linear television networks such as CBS, Fox and NBC. The Big 12 has a $31.7 million per year package per school.
If the Pac-12 does somehow survive and needs to add more schools, San Diego State (Mountain West Conference) and SMU (American Athletic Conference) have been linked as potential additions.
If Cal and Stanford end up in the Big Ten, the Bears would immediately become the conference’s top men’s swim and dive team as the two-time defending NCAA champions, while the Cardinal, despite losing a massive name in Claire Curzan this week, would be the top women’s program.
Moving this back around to our favorite sports, here’s the lay of the land as of about an hour ago (when ASU and Utah submitted their formal request to join the Big12). Both the Big10 and Big12 certainly have an all new look to them tonight!
Schools with Swimming programs:
Big 12:
Arizona (m&w)
ASU (m&w)
BYU (m&w)
Cincinnati (m&w)
Houston (w)
Iowa State (w)
Kansas (w)
TCU (m&w)
Utah (m&w)
West Virginia (m&w)
Big 10:… Read more »
Illinois (w)
Indiana (m&w)
Iowa (m&w)
Maryland (m&w)
Michigan (m&w)
Minnesota (m&w)
Nebraska (w)
Northwestern (m&w)
Ohio State (m&w)
Penn State (m&w)
Maryland does NOT have swim and dive
My mistake. What can I say. I’m old school. 😎
The University of Maryland does not have a swim program for men or women
ASU and Utah have now applied for Big 12 membership.
According to ESPN
So what is next for the remaining members of the Pac-12? If UW and UO go to Big 10, that leaves Cal, Stanford, OSU, WSU, Utah, ASU, and Arizona (seven schools). They then likely invite SMU, which was rumored. The four highest revenue schools in the MWC are:
These four schools probably get the invite and the conference remains, albeit conference is a paper tiger. Swimming-wise, this conference would be losing USC and adding SMU, Air Force and UNLV which are two strong mid-majors on the men’s side. On the women’s side, the USC loss is countered with the addition of all five of those schools. The Pac-12 swimming conferences improves overall with… Read more »
Arizona is Big12 bound. They’ve been reporting it all day. Utah on the cusp of going also. If they go, pretty much a lock ASU to the Big12 also.
And Oregon and Washington are now Big10 headed as per reporting today also.
The Pac12 is most likely history at this point barring a miracle.
Mountain West looking awfully good right now for some of those schools.
Pretty sure the Pac-12 conference is dead already. It’s not a question of who will the Pac-12 invite, it’s which conference will OSU/WSU/Cal/Stanford join.
I wonder if the Pac-12 brand is strong enough to be worth trying to salvage – even if the Pac-12 looks more like the Mountain West.
Even newer, breaking news, Big12 reporters now saying they are looking at 18 team conference and bringing in OSU and WSU on reduced financial payout.
Sounds like the big 10 and big 12 have pulled their ships alongside the floundering PAC 12 and about to start broadsiding it to death.
The Califraudnia Baby Bears are slated for a big collapse too.
#beardown
Money over athletes, right?
Football over everything other sport, like swimming, right?
The cash goes to the sport with pointed balls, not lane lines, right?
This just feels dirty. As much of a joke as the NCAAs amateurism was, there’s just something that feels deeply wrong about these institutions openly chasing profits, especially while other schools and most sports programs struggle and are getting hanged out to dry. Though, unfortunately it’s a rather fitting microcosm of the state of the USA right now.
Well said. I was naive enough to think past the idea that the almighty dollar is the only thing that actually matters at the end of the day. Sad. Conference meets will become a formality for swimming, practically becoming big club meets that some teams travel across time zones to, like UCLA facing their “conference rivals” Wisconsin and Purdue, for example. Yawn.
For me, the saddest part of this realignment dance is that most or all of the increased money these schools are chasing will just get plowed back into football: higher coaching salaries, payments to players, and more gold-plated facilities. Olympic sports will still be on the outside looking in.
Yes that is it. Learn this swimmers.
You have NIL opportunities but you are going to carve it out yourself not have someone waiting for you. We are on tv once a year in ncaa swimming other sports draw higher media ratings for their practice. Get to work and get the nil deal you can.
Some departments will find a way to invest but the gold plating brings players that bring ratings. But the department needs ratings for power within conference. So when realignment happens over and over again they have the ability for stability. And most teams are not producing medal winning Olympic swimmers. Until that is a norm for the school don’t expect anything other than a… Read more »
I get that Olympic sports don’t mean anything in the big picture, but it’s kinda shocking that Cal and Stanford are both left in the green room here
Stanford’s best shot is for Irish to to decide to join the Big 10 and insist that the Cardinal be admitted as condition.
Cal is though is is real trouble. I won’t say there is no path to them joining the B1G, but it is very narrow. A more plausible option at this point is hoping for the Big XII.
At this point it might not be a bad idea for Cal to look towards the almost defunct-now-how is this happening- Big(much bigger)-12.
The television sets the Big 12 is about to have access to is not insignificant.
Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix area (all of AZ if ASU goes too), Orlando/Central Florida, Cincinnati/Ohio, Kansas City, Denver, if Utah jumps, then all of Utah.
This TV deal might actually be massive and be more valuable down the road than the SEC’s considering most SEC schools are in smaller markets.
Curious to see where quality teams vs quantity of TV sets collide. Regional/local televised coverage is still a thing for now and valuable to the networks.
If… Read more »
How would Big 12 be ahead of Big 10 on television? Big 10 would have LA/Chicago/New York/Pennsylvania/Ohio – plus Detroit/Michigan, Wisconsin/Washington/Oregon/Indiana/Central-Illinois into St. Louis/etc…
You do make a good point about LA as I am forgetting about the progenitor of this whole thing USC/UCLA.
I think between the 2 conferences some of the smaller markets cancel each other out.
Although in defense I don’t think anything for college gets the New York market. The ACC might have a dispute there if anyone. Philly is Villanova and Penn so again, not a Big10 market by any means.
Quick eyeball of cities with population bases over 200,000 people, I “gave” a city to either the Big10 or Big12 based off location/probable TV audience who they would cheer for. If there was a school in a city that geographically might be one or the… Read more »
Cal and Stanford fit much more with the academic profiles of the Big 10 (USC, Northwestern, Michigan)
Although money is really the only thing that matters (I think)
Stanford and Cal have known about this for over a year now. And the other teams leaving have been openly discussed for the last six months. Arizona, considering it is no surprise to anyone.
The fact is that both Stanford and Cal didn’t budge. If it was hubris or maintaining disbelief it could actually happen, their complete lack of preparation is their own fault.
Guessing the Big10 will swoop in and bail them out though.
But who knows. This whole thing is bonkers right now.
Just glad the ASU guys won the PAC-12 2022-23 Men’s Swimming title and got to have the photo taken which heads the article.
The collapse of the PAC12 has to be Meehan’s fault lol!