Alright, let’s run this back. Currently, it’s 11:27 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28. I just finished watched No. 8 Oregon earn its first Big Ten Conference win over UCLA by a score of 34-13.
This column has typically been a way for me to organize my thoughts in the exhaustion that sits with me following a weekend game at Autzen or Reser. This weekend, neither stadium is occupied. Oregon on the road in Los Angeles, Oregon State taking the first of its two bye weeks this season. And being the spoiled brat I am, I typically spend the first paragraph or two of this column complaining about how hard life is for little old me, who’s quite literally paid to attend football games and offer my unsolicited thoughts on what occurred.
This weekend, I’m left without a press box to linger in. No overly-hot coffee to sip on or room temperature popcorn to snack on. I remember thinking, “sweet, no game to get ready for today,” when I woke up. Now I’m missing my seat high above the field as I write this column from the lobby of a Holiday Inn Express in Newberg (My folks are in town for the weekend to celebrate my younger sister’s birthday, Happy 21st, Ryin).
In complete and total honesty, there isn’t much for me to conjecture on about the showing Oregon gave tonight. My thoughts are elsewhere — particularly with conference realignment.
The past three weeks or so have been as wild for me as a media member as they have been for those following along with the news cycle. At least a dozen times in that span I’ve gotten a text from friends or family members asking what was true or what was not, each one being told that I know just as much as they do while I hang near my laptop constantly waiting for news to be broken about who will be the final team (teams?) added to the Pac-12.
Rewinding two years, I thought Oklahoma and Texas’ move to the SEC made sense. Regionally, they’re close enough. Both are historic programs who have the funding to make that jump and the back-filling of the Big 12 with UCF, BYU, Cincinnati and Houston fit the conference. Fine by me.
The dissolving of the original Pac-12 with the exits of UCLA and USC to start, later joined by Oregon and Washington bummed me out as a west coast kid. I grew up watching the conference, seeing it torn down to the studs of Oregon State and Washington State bummed me out.
Now, in the year 2024, what has happened to “rebuild” the Pac-12 has me badly worried. There’s a reason why people say that sequels or reboots are never as fun as the original. The same applies to what the Pac-12 has become.
The initial four additions to the 2026 Pac-12 reboot — San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State and Colorado State — were all schools I thought the Pac-12 should go after (except maybe Colorado State. Sorry, Austin. Editors note from Austin: The Rams are bad but you need the Denver market).
You got your four from the Mountain West, just need two more. Like many, my mind was drawn to Memphis and Tulane. Both are competitive Group of Five schools who have seemingly outgrown their status as American Athletic Conference members. Bring them into the fold, expand the Pac-12 further east as a benefit to recruiting and TV markets. Boom, you’ve got yourself a solid conference that meets NCAA requirements. Get the show on the road.
I truly think that the Pac-12 believed that adding those two would be a lay up. When the AAC pulled the rug out from under them with its press release confirming that both Memphis and Tulane — as well as South Florida and UTSA — would remain in the conference, fit hit the shan.
Gonzaga’s name was briefly thrown around. UNLV as well as Air Force were briefly tabbed as options before re-upping with the Mountain West through 2032. Saint Mary’s name was discussed alongside the Zags for basketball membership, my own alma mater of Sacramento State continues to campaign for why it should be considered to the point where it’s announced the building of a new stadium.
Countless other rumors and wild goose chases have reared their heads, while the Pac-12 came away from its shopping spree at the mall with nothing but the cold Auntie Anne’s pretzel that is Utah State (Sorry, Ags fans. It isn’t personal). Meanwhile, the Mountain West is looking to backfill with... Toledo? Northern Illinois? Texas State?
And now we continue to wait, speculate, pre-write stories and pray this will all be over soon while the powers at be wrestle one another for middling Group of Five programs to prop themselves up. All the while the NCAA has made no motion to expand the auto-bids of the College Football Playoff from five to six, or grant the new-look Pac-12 its autonomous status — legal speak for “Power Conference.”
Amongst all of this, I have two questions left:
Where do you go next and what is all of this for?
As for who you go after now, I’ve got some ideas. The AAC and Mountain West are now completely off limits with both conferences tightening their belts and re-upping with current members. You’re left with the Sun Belt and Conference USA to pick through and maybe the FCS level.
As fun as it would be for my Hornets to make the leap like they’re so strongly pushing for, I don’t see a world where it happens. I’m not sure any of the other Big Sky schools want to make the leap or could even afford it (except maybe UC Davis, but with the Aggies being my school’s chief rival, I cannot give them any leeway).
My top two targets would be Texas State of the Sun Belt and UTEP from C-USA. It establishes a semi-regional rivalry between the two on the basis that they’re both from Texas. Getting into the Texas media market is always a good play for television, the passion for college football in the state and the hotbed of recruiting that it can be. Plus, the Bobcats are proving themselves as an up and comer in the sport.
As for the second part of my question, I don’t have an answer.
Had the Pac-12 secured Memphis and Tulane, I could’ve gotten behind the legitimacy of the conference pushing for its autonomy after three or four years. Make consistent at-large pushes for the final playoff auto-bid, maybe rack up a coupletTop 10 wins, you’re cooking with gas come 2028.
But now, still hunting a final member in an increasingly-shrinking crop of prospects, the Pac-12 will be the rebooted movie. A shell of the original and made for TV (contracts, in this case).
It’s a bleak outlook and one that I’m sure will not be appreciated by many — but it is the one I think we’ve reached.
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