How Many Teams Will Be Left In Pac-12 in 2024?
108-Year-Old Conference On Life Support, There May be a Lifeline
The 2023 Pac-12 Team odds show the USC Trojans (+200) as the favorite to win their 40th conference championship. The Trojans are not only focused on winning a Pac-12 championship but they’re good enough to win their 12th claimed national championships. Oregon (+320), Washington (+320), and back-to-back champion Utah (+600) will challenge for the top spot in what should be a terrific season out West. The problem is, what will become of the Pac-12 next season? Let’s examine the potential outcomes of that question.
Pac 12: What Has Happened So Far
We’d much rather focus on the 2023 Pac-12 team odds, College Football picks, or breaking down the NCAA Football schedule, but the disintegration of the “Conference of Champions” leaves us restless when we’d simply like to concentrate on week 0 of the NCAA Football schedule. With all the movement, it’s difficult to stay up to date but we’ll do our best. In late June, USC and UCLA announced that they would be leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big 10 starting in 2024 because nothing says midwest football like the Bruins. That started the dominoes.
Just under a month later, Colorado announced that it would be leaving the conference to rejoin the Big 12. Many felt that it would be nice to see the Buffs go back to the conference that they competed in from 1996 to 2010. On August 4th, Oregon and Washington announced that they too would be joining the Big 10, and soon after that Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah made it public that they’ll be following the Buffaloes to the Big 12. That leaves the Pac-12 with just four schools, California, Stanford, Oregon State, and Washington State. Why the realignment, lucrative television contracts is the answer. As we look into the future what might 2024 look like for the flailing conference?
Are We Watching The End Of the Pac-12 Or Mountain West?
There are still talks that Stanford and California may join the ACC, but there doesn’t seem to be much momentum for that. That brings us to the Mountain West Conference which will eventually play a massive role in where the final puzzle pieces will land. Many have speculated that the Pac-12 will absorb the MWC which features teams from attractive markets like Las Vegas (UNLV), San Diego (SDSU), and Boise (Boise State).
We also could be looking at the conference making room for whoever is left from the Pac-12. There is also another scenario in the upcoming years that could see the Power Five Conferences become the Power Two with brand new television deals that include a 7-year-$7 billion dollar deal with CBS. NBC, and Fox, that runs through 2030. The SEC’s deal with ESPN is for $3 billion through 2024. If we’re predicting 2023 Pac-12 Teams odds for what will likely happen, this is what we’re betting on.
Pac-12 Will Likely be The Poachers at Some Point
There is only so much movement to be had before every conference that isn’t considered a Power Five conference will likely be swallowed up to form an East and West College Football division. For now, rather than the Pac-12 morphing with the Mountain West, we think the Pac-12 will take the best of the MWC and AAC in order to fill the void left by the eight teams who are in the process of moving out. If it goes in that direction, San Diego State is a natural to join the Pac-12 along with Fresno State, two California schools.
Beyond that, Boise State would be the next attractive option followed by UNLV which owns the most attractive market of all the MWC teams. AAC candidates are easily Tulane, then comes UCF, SMU, and Cincinnati although Memphis would be a welcomed member with their basketball success. That is the best we can make out the future Pac-12 Team odds for where the remaining schools will end up in 2024. What a mess.
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