NCAA Basketball: 3 takeaways from Colorado leaving Pac-12 for the Big 12
Where does the Pac-12 go from here?
For what seems like forever now, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff has been trying to get a new media rights deal good enough to keep the 10 remaining members together. Yet despite his public reassurances, a deal seems far away and the instability that it created seemed to be enough for Colorado to want to bounce.
Of all the power conferences, the ACC and Pac-12 are easily the most vulnerable long-term. What’s keeping the ACC together is the Grant of Rights Deal that bounds the members until 2036 before they can leave without paying a gigantic financial penalty. So all eyes are on the Pac-12 to see who could else be going.
The one hope would be to replace Colorado as soon as possible with a good option. And the obvious candidate would be San Diego State, who is coming off a national title game appearance in NCAA Basketball. The school recently intended to exit the Mountain West last month in hopes of an invite to the Mountain West. But they returned back and now have to pay double the exit fee, meaning that they’re stuck there until 2026 when that league’s deal is up.
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Other options include Gonzaga (great basketball program but no football), and SMU from the AAC, or someone else from the Mountain West. But even if they were to land them, that’s not going to stop other teams from leaving if the Big 12 and Big Ten come calling. It’s a dark time for the Pac-12 Conference, which needs to do something quickly, or else things could get ugly.