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What happened to the Pac-12? Why Washington, Oregon, USC, and UCLA are joining Big Ten

kevin skiver, usa today network
·5 min read
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Michigan vs. Washington will have a strange aura to it during Monday's College Football Playoff championship.

It's a Big Ten-vs.-Pac-12 game for a championship, but it won't take place in Pasadena, home of the traditional Rose Bowl meeting between the two conferences. It's a sign that the times, they are a-changing. And they'll be even more drastically different after this season.

The next time these two teams meet — next year — will be as Big Ten Conference opponents. Washington is among the four Pac-12 teams leaving the conference after this season season for the Big Ten alongside Oregon, USC, and UCLA. The "Four Corner" schools of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah will join the Big 12. Meanwhile, Cal and Stanford will join the ACC.

REQUIRED READING: Conference realignment will leave Pac-12 in pieces. See the decades of shifting alliances

As a result, Oregon State and Washington State have been left holding the bag in the Pac-12. These two schools anticipate operating as a two-team conference beginning in 2024, having successfully filed for a temporary restraining order from the conference in September.

Washington and Oregon were not originally in the cards for the Big Ten. USC and UCLA announced their absconsion in 2022, and the Pacific Northwest universities followed suit last summer. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah announced their Big 12 move at the same time as Washington and Oregon announced their departure. Within a month, Cal and Stanford were gone as well.

The domino effect has left the college football world wondering what is next, with the Power Five conferences being condensed to four.

What happened to the Pac-12?

After the Big Ten and SEC's new media rights deals, things did not go as smoothly for the Pac-12.

Despite the formation of an alliance between the Big Ten, Pac-12, and ACC after Oklahoma and Texas defected to the SEC, USC and UCLA left the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. The loss of the Los Angeles television market stalled Pac-12 talks for a new media rights deal, with the 10 remaining member schools making a counter-offer of $50 million per school to carry Pac-12 games to ESPN's initial offer of $30 million, per Oregon insider John Canzano.

As a result, ESPN and Fox landed on $31.7 million per school with the Big 12, per Pete Thamel. Apple offered less than ESPN, and although there were some incentives, Oregon and Washington ultimately left for the Big Ten.

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, who took over the position in 2021, serves as the recurring character for all of this conference turnover. Kliavkoff took over for Larry Scott, who had been at the helm of the conference since 2009. With Washington making the national championship, Oregon's success under Dan Lanning, and the Colorado media firestorm that followed Deion Sanders, another season on the media rights deal might have saved the Pac-12.

But Kliavkoff was reportedly unsatisfactorily responding to schools asking about negotiations, leading to the exodus of the eight members in 2023. First it was Colorado to the Big 12 in late July. Then, in early August, five more followed suit before Stanford and Cal rounded things out.

Kliavkoff's "wait and see" approach to both negotiations and expansion — as Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark actively courted his members — ultimately doomed the conference, leading to its eventual dissolution.

REQUIRED READING: NCAA president tours the realignment wreckage at Washington State

Washington State and Oregon State restraining order

And what of the remants?

Whether out of stubbornness or principle, Washington State and Oregon State stayed on as a conference, leading to more questions about the future.

The departing 10 Pac-12 schools were scheduled to meet with Kliavkoff toward the beginning of the season. Washington State and Oregon State were reportedly concerned the meeting would lead to the full breakdown of the conference, something the two schools are clawing to avoid. Their ultimate goal is full control of the conference and the opportunity to rebuild.

Washington State and Oregon State sought a restraining order against the departing schools and Kliavkoff, which was granted in September by a Washington judge in Whitman County, in which Pullman is located.

“I am pleased with today’s decision. As the two remaining Pac- 12 members, Oregon State and Washington State must be able to chart a path forward for the Pac 12--not the members that have chosen to leave it,” Oregon State President Jayathi Murthy said in a statement, per the Associated Press.

Pac-12 future

The Pac-12's future is, to be reductive, murky.

The conference is currently aligned with the Mountain West for scheduling purposes. Washington State and Oregon State have a two-year grace period to figure out what's next, meaning they can stay afloat up to 2026 before hard decisions must be made.

While the focus here is football, operating as a two-team conference makes scheduling across all sports a Herculean (and possibly impossible) task. Both schools sponsor more than 15 sports.

While Washington initially won an emergency motion to prevent the remnants to retain control of the conference at the end of November, the decision was overturned in December, leaving the future in Washington State and Oregon State's hands for the time being.

2024 conferences

Here's a look at how the conferences will look beginning next season. Bold indicates 2023 playoff teams. An asterisk means it is a new member.

Big Ten

  • Indiana

  • Illinois

  • Iowa

  • Nebraska

  • Northwestern

  • Maryland

  • Michigan

  • Michigan State

  • Minnesota

  • Ohio State

  • Oregon*

  • Penn State

  • Purdue

  • Rutgers

  • UCLA*

  • USC*

  • Washington*

  • Wisconsin

Southeastern Conference

  • Alabama

  • Arkansas

  • Auburn

  • Florida

  • Georgia

  • Kentucky

  • LSU

  • Mississippi

  • Mississippi State

  • Missouri

  • Oklahoma*

  • South Carolina

  • Texas*

  • Texas A&M

  • Tennessee

  • Vanderbilt

Big 12

  • Arizona*

  • Arizona State*

  • Baylor

  • BYU

  • Cincinnati

  • Colorado*

  • Houston

  • Iowa State

  • Kansas

  • Kansas State

  • Oklahoma State

  • TCU

  • Texas Tech

  • UCF

  • Utah*

  • West Virginia

ACC

  • Boston College

  • Cal*

  • Clemson

  • Duke

  • Florida State

  • Georgia Tech

  • Louisville

  • Miami

  • NC State

  • North Carolina

  • Pittsburgh

  • SMU

  • Stanford*

  • Syracuse

  • Virginia

  • Virginia Tech

  • Wake Forest

Pac-12

  • Washington State

  • Oregon State

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What happened to the Pac-12? Why Washington, others are joining Big Ten