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The PAC-12 is now the PAC-2 as former league members officially join their new conferences. Now, just Oregon State and Washington State remain.
Once a prominent piece of the college sports landscape, the league now finds itself lost in a sea of uncertainty.
Television revenue was at the center of the movement as schools searched for greener pastures. While other conferences secured massive media rights deals to ensure stability, the PAC 12 sat back and waited.
Now, all they’ve got to show is a deal with the CW and a wave of attrition.
USC and UCLA sparked the realignment when they opted to bail for the Big Ten. A domino effect then followed.
Those departers seem excited for the transitions, with most posting some sort of online video to commemorate a new era on the West Coast.
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The “Conference of Champions,” meanwhile, was forced to scrub the last remnants of what once was, offering a sad visual on the current state of affairs.
The PAC-12 is officially a two-team league.
When scrolling through the PAC-12 website, you’ll now see just those two members listed for each sport. A schedule ticker on the side of the page shows a limited selection of games to watch after seeing the majority of the league bail for bigger paychecks.
The headlines only revolve around the Beavers and Cougars, with updates coming few and far between.
The entire site now looks bare.
Further updates to the site paint a bleak picture about where the conference could be headed.
For the 2024-25 season, the Pac-12 includes two members with Oregon State and Washington State and will sponsor five sports, including baseball, football, track & field, women’s gymnastics and wrestling. Both Oregon State and Washington State will compete as affiliate members of the West Coast Conference across 12 sports (men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, women’s tennis and women’s volleyball) over a two-year period, while Washington State will compete as a Mountain West Conference affiliate member in two sports, including baseball and women’s swimming, and Oregon State will compete in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) for men’s rowing.
Destined for permanent G5 status?
While the league still gloats of its nation-leading 514 national championships, the large majority of those contributors are now gone. And with the league no longer possessing enough teams to fill out even a college football schedule, it’s had to resort to other options.
That includes dipping into Group of Five affiliation with the Mountain West and West Coast Conferences for the immediate future.
July 1st, 2024 represented a day of excitement for a number of programs as they embarked on new journeys in college sports. For the PAC-12, it’s a day to be forgotten.