Oregon and Washington join Big Ten, putting Pac-12 in further peril
Multiple outlets reported Friday morning that Oregon and Washington are expected to accept an invitation to join the Big Ten, bringing the conference membership to 18 schools for the 2024-25 academic year.
Kliavkoff reportedly presented his schools with the details of a potential media rights agreement with Apple on Tuesday. The deal would put Pac-12 games mostly on the streaming service and offer minimal linear cable and broadcast options. For schools in western time zones, that have already struggled with exposure during the past decade, that idea apparently did not sit well.
Oregon and Washington are expected to be followed out the door by Arizona, which has reportedly been approved for Big 12 membership. The pressure would then be on Arizona State and Utah to go with the Wildcats to the suddenly resurgent league.
It’s less clear what will happen to Stanford, California, Washington State and Oregon State. Unless the Pac-12 survives by finding expansion partners or entices the Mountain West with a merger, the remaining members would become the first major conference schools in the realignment era to actually lose their conference home.
Even if the Pac-12 does still exist, it certainly won’t feel like a power conference any longer.
latimes.com
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