There really needs to be a reorganization of college sports conferences, at least in the west, in my opinion. For one thing the West Coast Conference needs to be eliminated. That is just a group of super-expensive private schools with varying degrees of church affiliations-and dnot even the same church. It's not like they refuse to play against public schools, so what else really unifies them ? It's not like people who attend public schools are godless, so the conference just comes off as elitist. On the other side of it, the West Coast Conference schools to my knowledge (except maybe Brigham Young-I don't know) aren't even necessarily screening appllicants based on their religion so much as their academic qualifications and money.

However much sense it makes to organize conferences geographically that doesn't work for the haves who aspire to achieve more. The have-nots would in turn get pummeled instead of playing like universities. Cal and Stanford would not be happy about being forced to play UCD every year in basketball or baseball and against whom would Hawaii even play ?

I think the answer is for conferences to loosen requirements for membership that are based on the level of participation. There should be more affiliate-memberships and not less.

And this seems like a topic with a lot of meat to it, so I will start an additional thread

No way would we be in the conversation for moving to the PAC-12. I expect the PAC-12 will quickly be looking to find other already established major programs such as those mentioned below:

Is expansion necessary or could the Pac-12 remain at 10 for a while? If expansion is a must, the conference could look to programs like Boise State, BYU, Houston, Oklahoma State, or Kansas to bolster the membership.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/usc-ucla-big-ten-whats-next-pac-12-big-12-college-football-expansion-realignment

Deadspin: "This is a geographical nightmare. When USC and UCLA don’t play each other, their next closest conference opponent is Nebraska. That’s a tame 1,500-mile trip from Los Angeles to Lincoln. That’s a minimum. Try being Rutgers or Maryland and the yearly cross-country trip for a simple conference game. Please show how it’s best for the players to recover with longer flights and less time to prepare for opponents. New Brunswick, New Jersey to the L.A. Memorial Coliseum is a 5-hour one-way trip and nearly 2,800 miles."

Will ALL there sports go Big Ten? If so... disastrous move for student-athletes.

Humm, less games against Berkeley, meaning the Bears lose revenue games to pay for their stadium.

Not an expert, but here are alleged TV revenue numbers per year, per team.

$21 Million per school - current Pac 12 deal

$50 Million per school - projected future Pac 12 deal (before today)

$100 Million per school - new Big Ten estimate; Apple now trying to get back into the bidding?

UC President Michael Drake approves of this? Imagine the cross country nightmare trips for most USC and UCLA teams.

https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/2022/04/07/one-reason-for-pac-12-optimism-next-round-of-media-rights-negotiations/

Will the Pac 12 approach Boise State and UNLV?

LaMike Black@LaMikeBlack
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UPDATE

Oregon & Washington are likely to be accepted into the Big-10 with an announcement pending as @FifthQuarter is told.

Stanford and cal ADs must be shaking in their boots to be so blind to this. Especially cal with its horrible deficit of $400 +/- I exPect that the PAC *** is a goner. Stanford could go independent but not cal. Arizona teams and Utah Colorado are dead meat. So sad and all just for the money.

From the Seattle Times:

Starting close to home, the University of Washington — specifically, athletic director Jen Cohen and university President Ana Mari Cauce — is now facing a stark decision, one being mirrored in Eugene, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Tempe, Boulder and perhaps Palo Alto and Berkeley. Namely, do the Huskies do everything in their power to maneuver their way into joining the Trojans and Bruins in the exodus to the Big Ten? Or do they stay with what essentially now becomes a mid-major Pac-12 conference?

It seems virtually certain that Oregon, which has the loftiest of aspirations for its football program, will not be satisfied with a Pac-12 that doesn’t contain USC and UCLA and will now see its already plummeting reputation tarnished even more. They almost have to leave now, right? And there were already reports Thursday that the Big Ten could target Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State to form a super conference.

It’s a dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest environment that has left schools scrambling to maintain their relevance in a collegiate world already uprooted by the Name, Image and Likeness revolution and transfer portal upheaval. As one Twitter wag noted on Thursday, this is a case of entire programs entering the transfer portal — and not for the first time in this new Wild, Wild West era of collegiate sports.

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/uw-husky-football/uw-faces-stark-decision-in-usc-ucla-fallout-leave-pac-12-or-be-content-in-declining-conference/

Bear alums not happy, some claim a 12 or 16 team football playoff structure that was on the table may have helped prevent this.

Bob Dunning thinks the time is right for the Aggies to be invited to the PAC12:

Would the Pac-12 swap UCLA for UC Davis? In normal times, no. But these are not normal times. Substituting one UC for another sounds like an even deal to me, especially since there’s no other UC campus that even sponsors football, other than Cal.

Other geographically logical candidates include San Diego State, Fresno State and Boise State, all of which could compete immediately with Pac-12 schools. But no one can bring that UC prestige and credibility to the table but UC Davis.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/bob-dunning-usc-ucla-leaving-pac-12-is-giant-jolt/

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/usc-and-ucla-join-big-ten-live-news-updates-as-pac-12-powers-kick-start-more-conference-realignment/live/

Our Dennis Dodd reports that Oregon and Washington have been told by the Big Ten that it is standing pat for now. The Big Ten is waiting on a decision by Notre Dame ... from there you've got to wonder if having 17 or 19 teams would make sense. An even 18 or 20 is probably simpler. Uncomfortable moment of limbo for the Ducks and Huskies. Notre Dame, meanwhile, continues to wield great leverage as an Independent.

Pac-12 just released the following statement suggesting expansion is on the table as the league regroups from the loss of UCLA and USC: "The Pac-12 Board of Directors met this morning and authorized the Conference to explore all expansion options. The 10 university presidents and chancellors remain committed to a shared mission of academic and athletic excellence on behalf of our student-athletes."

And what about the “minor sports”? Can you imagine the. COSTs of sending uclas baseball team to Maryland for games? Woman’s crew? What about their classroom time. Crazy. Why didn’t the PAC 12 comish see this coming? Teresa Gould? Maybe they both are now looking for new employment opportunities. It’s all about the money and nothing for the athletes. Sad and sick IMHO.

+1.

More money, for what? They have new or rehabbed stadiums, full schollies, and $5M a year FB coaches.

Did Governor Newsom play a role in this?

The Ringer: "This is unsustainable, and that’s probably because it’s not intended to be sustained. Things in college sports are changing at an impossibly rapid pace. Less than three years ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced his state would allow college athletes to make money off their name, image, and likeness rights starting on January 1, 2023. We didn’t have to wait that long, because dozens of other states (and Congress!) implemented rules that accelerated that timeline. ..."

https://www.theringer.com/college-football/2022/6/30/23190599/usc-ucla-big-ten-pac-12-conference-realignment-ncaa-future

REPORT: Big Ten's 'wish list' for conference expansion includes ND, Oregon, Stanford, UNC

Robert Bondy
Mon, July 4, 2022 at 5:44 PM

https://sports.yahoo.com/report-big-ten-wish-list-004442486.html

That would be devastating for Washington.

At this rate, there's a better chance of Cal joining the Big West than of Davis ever being considered for the Pac-12.

Pac 12 TV money will drop considerably... if it survives.

Shehan Jeyarajah@ShehanJeyarajah
BREAKING NEWS from @dennisdoddcbs: The Big 12 is in deep discussions to add up to six Pac-12 teams

https://t.co/C91rPZMigk

Former commissioner Larry Scott moved the Pac 12 offices out of Walnut Creek.

“The Pac-12 Conference headquarters cost the conference $6.9 million in rent in the last reported fiscal year. They’re also carrying $11.7 million in deferred rent.”

Sports Illustrated: "Scott reportedly received an annual salary of $5.3 million, although the economic crisis that resulted in financial woes for the Pac-12 caused him to take a 12% cut, reducing his salary to $4.66 million for the next year." Jan 21, 2021

I have heard or read that the Big 10 and Big 12 are interested in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Stanford, and the Arizona schools. Little if any mention of Cal, Oregon State, or Washington State.

Not being asked to the senior prom has to sting a bit.

I see in the LA Times that UCLA has a $102 million dollar deficit for it's athletic programs which will go to a surplus with the move to the Big 10. I don't understand how a public institution can run a deficit like this? And, of course, Stanford wanted to axe upwards of a dozen of its programs. Clearly there's a great illness in some parts of college sports.

Perhaps the Big Ten will start its own charter airline to move students around. Only half kidding - with all the money - and an availability of aircraft - maybe they'll do it or go in concert with the SEC.

“The Pac-12 Conference headquarters cost the conference $6.9 million in rent in the last reported fiscal year. They’re also carrying $11.7 million in deferred rent.”

Wow, thats crazy. Maybe they’d save money by moving the office to Rio Linda .

And then, on the lighter side, there's this:

https://twitter.com/CBSSports/status/1542979078566862849?s=20&t=oa5O1fojvoMIrzv7oEzC6Q

Not sure why Stanford would cut sports with a massive endowment and top-flight facilities. They've even built on-campus housing for coaching staff.

The former Pac 12 Commiss was making over $5M a year.

Joe Davidson of the Bee ran an article in this morning's paper about prospects of UCD and Slack State moving in the wake of the USC & UCLA moves. He spoke with both ADs and both said they had no plans to move anywhere. Both are content at FBS and the Big Sky.

One fact to keep in mind is that the NCAA has attendance requirements for FCS schools and neither UCD or CSUS come close to meeting those.

I'll add a link. (Cutting and pasting articles from the Bee is labor intensive. Not sure if the problem is on the Bee's end or mine...)
Here's the link: https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article263187653.html

UCLA is apparently over $100 Million in debt from the past three years (little revenue in football and basketball), Covid playing a role. By extension, some of that could be blamed on Newsom. The Bruins felt their choices were cutting Olympic sports, or going big time.

This is the much bigger problem. It's one thing for football to do it for games that are once per week and, generally speaking, on a weekend. I know they travel on a Friday but when I went to school, there were multiple quarters where I didn't have any class on Friday, though this obviously isn't the case everywhere. But what are we doing when there are Thur/Sat basketball games? Now we've got student-athletes (I know it's a cliche but not all these kids are going pro in basketball) missing at least two days worth of classes plus all that time on the plane. It's one thing for UCLA to take the short flight up to Wash/Ore/Utah. It's another going back and forth to the midwest/east coast. And then you've got all the other smaller sports. If this is just football, it's not as big of a deal. But it probably won't be.

Newsom didn't have anything to do with this. If he didn't sign that bill, all those other states mentioned in the article still would have gone ahead and done it anyway. And even if NIL wasn't a thing, all these schools care about is the bottom line. If they can make more money from football by joining a different conference, they don't care about anything else. They're no different from any other sports league or even a large corporation. Money comes first and if making more money aligns with keeping the fans/consumers happy, all the better. If it doesn't align, oh well, F the fans/consumers.

I believe some UCLA observers are noting that Newsom's Covid lockdowns starved UCLA of revenue in FB and BB, leading to a $100+ M debt, which spurred the move.