Pac-12 not ready to expand, but if it does, Boise State and San Diego State will get a look
Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said his league is not going to have a knee-jerk reaction to the expansion going on in other leagues, but that it will continue to monitor the landscape and think about expanding in the future.
"In my short three years-plus as commissioner, I've learned to never say never," Scott told media at the Pac-12 Championship on Friday.
Scott said there were two teams the Pac-12 was keeping an eye on — Boise State and San Diego State.
"When we expanded in the past we looked at them because they are prominent schools in the West, with very strong athletics programs, in markets we are not in," Scott said. "There's a lot of criteria that we looked at last time, that I'm sure we'd look at again.
"If we were to look at expanding again, I'm sure both those schools would be on the list. But, we don't have any plans."
Boise State and San Diego State, both currently in the Mountain West, joined the Big East last year and will play their first season in the conference next fall. It's an odd move for two schools on the opposite side of the country from the Big East's traditional territory, but neither school was offered a spot in the Pac-12 when that conference expanded to Colorado and Utah.
Also, both schools were downgraded a bit because their academics were not on par with many of the other schools in the Pac-12.
With a new playoff coming in 2014, schools have been trying to better their conference standing in an effort to become a part of the playoff conversation.
Scott said he's not worried about the future of his conference. He's pleased with its 12 members and thinks options for expansion will be plentiful if and when the Pac-12 decides to move in that direction.
"We're always going to have good choices," Scott said. "We're strong academically, financially, exposure-wise. So I don't feel any pressure or any kind of rush (to expand) right now. I don't see right now how we're at any disadvantage whatsoever staying at 12. We like who we are."
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