A new rumor emerged on Saturday about potential landing spots for the Pac-12 schools that have been left behind.
The Pac-12 is down to just four schools following the exits of four schools to the Big Ten and four to the Big 12. The remaining schools are Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State. Those schools have been left scrambling to find new homes as they contemplate their futures.
Cal and Stanford have pushed to join the ACC and might actually make that happen. Oregon State and Washington State reportedly have meetings set with the AAC and Mountain West.
We knew about these options, but on Saturday, veteran sports writer Michael Silver (a Cal alum) said the Big 12 is a potential landing spot for the four Pac-12 schools.
As Cal and Stanford attempt to finalize a deal with the ACC, the Big 12 has surfaced as another potential landing spot. In that scenario the remaining Pac 12 schools (including Oregon State and Washington State) could also join the Big 12. @sfchronicle @SportingGreenSF
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) August 26, 2023
The Big 12 has already taken on four Pac-12 schools (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah). The conference will have 16 schools as of 2024. If they were to add the four remaining Pac-12 schools, that would give the conference 20. The conference would then span from Corvallis, Oregon to Orlando, Florida, which is a pretty large footprint.
Though nothing can be ruled out when it comes to conference expansion, this rumor doesn’t seem to make much sense. The Big 12 may have already done all the damage they wanted to do with expansion and taken the teams they wanted. Cal and Stanford don’t seem like a fit for that conference at all and may be trying to use the rumor as leverage for negotiations with the ACC. And if the Big 12 were a realistic option for Oregon State and Washington State, they would have jumped in an instant.
