Going, going, gone

The GIST: The Pac-12’s August 2023 collapse occurred as a result of both a slow-developing disaster and an overnight implosion. The catalysts? The forces that make the college sports world go ’round: money and prestige.

How it happened: Power — financial and otherwise — has been concentrating in the Big Ten and SEC for years, creating the recent wave of conference realignment. The Pac-12 was first swept up in it when legacy schools UCLA and USC announced their jaw-dropping 2024 jump to the Big Ten in June 2022. When those institutions bailed, others grew fidgety.

• Then, last summer, nearly everyone else followed suit, setting the stage for this year’s shake-up: Oregon and Washington also joined the Big Ten; Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State fled for the Big 12; and Stanford and Cal caught the last train to the ACC.

• In the mass exodus, OSU and WSU were abandoned as the only remaining Pac-12 members, earning them the “Pac-2” moniker.

The context: Several factors led to the Pac-12’s demise, but the biggest was TV revenue. The conference announced the first-of-its-kind Pac-12 Network in 2011, creating a massive revenue opportunity. However, schools voted against a broadcast partnership, like the SEC’s with ESPN, hobbling viewership and costing them crucial media dollars — the lifeblood of the NCAA economy.

• Over a decade of lost media money made the Pac-12 less competitive among the Power Five conferences, and subsequent failures to strike a lucrative deal convinced UCLA and USC to pull the string that ultimately unraveled the conference.

The GIST: Money was the force that undid the Pac-12, but dollars and cents aren’t the only stats that matter in college sports. Here’s the game-changing history of the West Coast’s once-powerful conference by the numbers.

108: The years since the Pac-12 (then named the Pacific Coast Conference) was established in December 1915. All four founding members — Cal, Washington, Oregon, and OSU — stayed with the Pac ’til the bitter end.

561: The astounding number of NCAA team championships won by Pac-12 schools, dwarfing the next-best Big Ten by over 250 trophies and earning them the well-deserved “Conference of Champions” nickname.

• Of those titles, Pac-12 schools won 207 in women’s sports, including the final natty won just three weeks ago today by Stanford’s women’s golf.

• Pac-12 schools also boast over 2.3K individual titles in sports like track & field and tennis, with women accounting for more than 800 of those titles — the most of any conference.

13: The number of Heisman Trophy winners (NCAA football’s MVP award) produced by the Pac-12, including eight from USC. Pac-12 football was renowned for producing phenomenal quarterbacks, from old-school GOATs like John Elway to current NFL veterans like Aaron Rodgers to 2023 college superstars Caleb Williams, Michael Penix Jr., and Bo Nix.

25: The Women’s College World Series titles snagged by Pac-12 softball teams out of the 42 total ever awarded. Although they’ve hoisted the hardware just once in the past 12 years (UCLA in 2019), Pac-12 squads took 24 of the first 30 ’ships, making the West Coast softball-central as the game grew into the juggernaut it is today.

10: The number of national championships that legendary men’s basketball coach John Wooden brought back to UCLA between 1964 and 1975. His tenure in LA is arguably the most impressive run in NCAA sports history.

• Despite the Pac-12’s recent struggles to reel in national hoops hardware, their women’s star-studded final-season battles put them in the spotlight during the best year in NCAA women’s basketball on record.

The GIST: With the Pac-12 officially over as we know it, what’s to become of the Pac-2? Will the conference ever stage a comeback? No one knows for sure, but all eyes are on the aforementioned new commish, Teresa Gould, as she works to resurrect the Conference of Champions.

Immediate next steps: As you read, Gould is still fighting for OSU and WSU, who will compete under the Pac-12 banner throughout the 2024–25 academic year. The pair have struck scheduling partnerships with the Mountain West Conference in football and affiliate memberships with the West Coast Conference for all other sports. And for now, their classic Pac-12 intrastate rivalry games will continue.

• Additionally, Gould secured a media rights deal for the two schools, plus access to an at-large College Football Playoff berth, similar to Notre Dame’s independent status. It’s an impressive start in an impossible situation.

The long-term plan: The Pac-12 must recruit at least six new members in the next two academic years to reach the NCAA’s eight-school minimum required to maintain conference recognition and championship eligibility. With WSU and OSU’s recent legal victory awarding them control of the conference, the Pac-12 could rise again — if they can convince other programs to join the club.

• Gould is also seeking creative revenue-generating solutions for the Pac-12 Network, which will become “Pac-12 Enterprises” at the end of this month. There are still a million unknowns, but if anyone could steer this sinking ship into the harbor, it’s Gould. Watch this space.