From a Conference of Champions to a conference of desperation

The Conference of Champions: Bill Walton, a former UCLA and NBA basketball player, dubbed the nickname to refer to the Pac-12, and it frequently comes up during his broadcasts now.

But now, more accurately, it’s an outdated nickname for a conference that will be a shell of itself in a year’s time.

Last June, USC and UCLA started the fall of the dominoes by announcing they would be leaving the Pac-12 and joining the Big Ten in August 2024. Rumors swirled for the better part of a year about whether other Pac-12 schools would follow suit and jump ship. It was not until July of this year when Colorado announced it will join the Big 12 in 2024 that another team said goodbye to the Pac.

And then madness ensued.

Less than 10 days later, Oregon and Washington announced they would join USC and UCLA in the Big Ten in 2024, leaving the Pac-12 with only seven remaining members. That number quickly dwindled to four members when the Big 12 announced that Utah, Arizona State and Arizona were also slated to join a new conference.

But the Pac-12 has been on the downturn for multiple years; the trend did not just start last June. And it all comes down to money.

Media deals help provide athletic departments with a significant portion of their funding, which is part of the reason USC decided to bolt for the Big Ten — a conference that recently signed a seven-year media deal worth more than $7 billion. At least before Oregon and Washington announced they were joining the conference, USC and UCLA were reportedly in line to earn around $62.5 million per year in the Big Ten. This number will only slightly — if at all —  decline, as Oregon and Washington will only receive a 50% share in their first year in the conference.

The Pac-12, on the other hand, does not have a deal in place for when the current one expires after the 2023-2024 seasons, forcing Pac-12 schools to explore their options.

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, without the brands of USC and UCLA at his disposal, was negotiating with ESPN in December 2022 for a deal that could amount between $30 million to $40 million per school every year, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.

But the deal fell through.

Kliavkoff then cobbled together a deal with Apple after Colorado already announced it was leaving, which would be around $23 million per year for the remaining schools with subscription-based incentives, according to a report by The Athletic.

But the deal never went to a vote as Oregon and Washington announced their conference move before a meeting could even happen. Utah, Arizona State and Arizona quickly followed suit.

That leaves Stanford, UC Berkeley, Oregon State and Washington State in the conference of desperation and without a media deal.

Stanford and Cal have been tied to the ACC, but there has not yet been a formal vote because it is believed the two Bay Area schools are one vote short of being accepted into the conference, according to a Sports Illustrated report. The two schools need 12 of the 15 current ACC members to approve the move, but Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina and NC State are reportedly all in opposition.

The ACC move has picked up more momentum this week as ACC presidents met Wednesday morning to discuss the financials, with a series of meetings due this week, according to an ESPN report.

Washington State president Kirk Schulz and athletic director Pat Chun wrote in a statement earlier this month that they have been “working diligently to determine what is next for Washington State Athletics,” but the school has not announced whether it plans to help revamp the Pac-12 by recruiting new members to the conference or find a new conference altogether.

Oregon State is intent on rebuilding the conference though, according to a report by The Athletic. The plan will likely hinge on what Stanford and Cal decide to do. Stanford, one of the preeminent academic institutions on the West Coast, also has the most NCAA championships of any school with 134 total team titles. If Stanford were to stay in the Pac-12 with that championship pedigree, it would make rebuilding the conference much easier.

Even if the Pac-12 can keep Stanford and Cal, then add schools like San Diego State, Fresno State or Southern Methodist University, that is likely not enough to get themselves a “Power Five” conference designation, which they currently have. After conference realignment is all said and done, there might not even be a Power Five.

There are clear winners and losers of the fall of the Pac-12 — and the losers might lose everything in the area of athletics. Four schools with Power Five caliber sports are practically left to fend for themselves, trying to find a way to make the best out of a bad situation.

Though it might just be too late to salvage the pieces.