College athletics are rapidly changing with radical conference realignment that has been taking place the last two summers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which took an unspeakable financial toll on the entire country. Auburn football and the rest of the SEC were affected last year with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma in 2025 — the first major dominoes to fall in the reshaping of the NCAA. This year, the Big 12 is picking up the pieces of those losses and is rocking the foundation of another conference.
Rocking the foundation might be underselling it, though. The Pac-12 conference is not guaranteed to survive the upcoming poaching that’s about to happen, which includes half of the teams in the current iteration of the conference.
The Big 12 is in "deep discussions" to add up to SIX Pac-12 schools, per @CBSSports:
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) July 5, 2022
▪️ Arizona
▪️ Arizona State
▪️ Colorado
▪️ Oregon
▪️ Utah
▪️ Washington pic.twitter.com/QKSYBKpjLc
Oregon and Washington were previously rumored to follow UCLA and USC to the Big Ten, but clearly those discussions broke down. The Big 12 certainly makes more geographic sense than the Big Ten in that regard.
Still, that’s eight teams leaving the Pac-12 by Fly War Eagle’s count. Stanford, Oregon State, Wazzou, and California would be the leftovers of the conference. That’s not the launching point of any successful prospective conference.
Auburn football and other SEC fans took to Twitter to eulogize the Pac-12 in the wake of this news:
This is what needs to happen. The remnants of the Pac-12 and Big 12 can make a respectable multi-sport conference, especially football which drives it all. But they’ve absolutely gotta do something or else. Really sucks for schools like Washington State, Oregon State, etc. https://t.co/dDRJ1sfTWH
— Pablo Escobarner (blue chek) (@PabloEscoburner) July 5, 2022
The arms race continues... https://t.co/fN4BiKnRFA
— Lucas Panzica (@lucaspanzica) July 5, 2022
This would be hilarious after Stanford and Cal-Berkley spent so much time posturing against religios schools joining the Pac-12, only to have Baylor and TCU steal all of their conference mates instead. https://t.co/vakUN4vkqi
— Poseur (@StepBaker1) July 5, 2022
Big 12 not going down without a fight https://t.co/cJk22LKmoN
— Jacob Pickle (@pickleo7) July 5, 2022
What do you think of all these realignment discussions? Drop a line in the comments section below!