COMMENTARY: Making sense of Pac-12 conference realignment after Monday’s madness

Two-Pac, six-Pac, red-Pac, UConn-in-the-Pac?

Are you confused yet?

Monday featured a stream of conference realignment news, the details of which will likely have changed by the time you read this. So that we’re on the same page, here is what happened.

The Pac-12 Conference, spearheaded by Washington State and Oregon State with four new members from the Mountain West in tow, asked a slew of schools if they wanted to join the league, and the vast majority of those schools said no. One said yes. Others are considering.

As of 9:02 p.m. Pacific on Monday, the Pac-12 Conference, which was reduced to two members when 10 schools bolted for other conferences within the last two years, has grown to seven schools — one short of the required eight football-supporting institutions required to be considered a conference by the NCAA in 2026 and beyond.

Four Mountain West pillars — Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State — announced last week their intention to join the Pac-12 beginning in 2026.

Another MW school, Utah State, reportedly accepted an invitation to join on Monday.

The Pac-12 reportedly targeted the biggest brands in the American Athletic Conference:

Memphis, Tulane, University of Texas San Antonio and South Florida.

Those four schools rejected the Pac-12 and announced their commitment to the AAC in a joint statement in which they acknowledged the fact that they considered leaving.

“While we acknowledge receiving interest in our institutions from other conferences, we firmly believe that it is in our individual and collective best interests to uphold our commitment to each other,” the four schools wrote in a joint statement Monday.

In the wake of this rejection, the Mountain West reportedly made a so-far successful effort to keep Air Force, UNLV and San Jose State.

There are even reports that the Pac-12 would add Gonzaga as a non-football member and UConn as a football-only member.

Basically, things are far from ideal for a Pac-12 Conference seeking to stake itself as the “best of the rest” in terms of media rights revenue and College Football Playoff access.

Why is this happening? It’s all about the money, specifically TV money.

The SEC’s primary media partner is ESPN. The Big Ten’s primary media partner is Fox.

The benefits of those direct partnerships? Exposure, branding and money, money, money.

Most people turn to ESPN and Fox for their sports television needs and if the best teams are on the “best” networks, that’s what people are going to watch.

Traditions, schedules, fans and entire institutions and conferences are thrown to the wayside in this pursuit of money and power.

USC and UCLA kicked this whole mess into high gear when they announced their departure from the Pac-12 in summer 2022.

More than a year later, the 10-school Pac-12 was on the verge of signing a deal with Apple TV, which would have been a historic streaming-first arrangement, before Oregon and Washington bailed for the Big Ten overnight and other schools scrambled to the Big 12. Cal and Stanford sought refuge in the ACC, giving the Atlantic Coast Conference a pair of Pacific Coast members.

Names don’t mean anything anymore. The Big Ten has 18 schools, the Big 12 has 16 and the Pac-12 has two (soon to be seven and counting).

The business side of the sport has dominated the headlines and drawn a clear line in the sand between the haves and have-nots.

Pac-12 Conference commissioner Teresa Gould was hired by WSU and OSU in February to chart a way forward in the rapidly changing college athletics landscape.

“We live in a crazy world of conference realignment, and there has been (a) non-stop shifting of conferences and member institutions for as long as I can remember, to be honest,” Gould said on Friday during halftime of WSU’s 54-52 double overtime win over San Jose State in Pullman. “My first stakeholder that I serve and work for are these student athletes. And (with) any move that we make, and (the) impact of any move that we make, my focus is always going to be these programs and these student athletes versus focusing on any other league.”

Gould said what others have said and what has proven to be true through this latest round of conference realignment: everyone is trying to take care of their own first and foremost.

You shouldn’t fault Gould for this approach. Her job exists because of WSU and OSU’s interest in saving their athletic departments. Unfortunately, saving WSU and OSU involves hurting other institutions.

Looking out for your primary stakeholders is what led UW president Ana Mari Cauce to lead her institution to the Big Ten and what has governed almost every realignment decision by almost every stakeholder at almost every school.

The Big Ten poached the Pac-12, leading the Pac-12 to poach the Mountain West just like how the MW poached the Western Athletic Conference in the 2010s and the WAC poached the Big West in the 90s.

It’s a vicious cycle of realignment that has real consequences for schools caught in the void with nowhere to go.

WSU cut athletics jobs over the summer. That’s fewer hands working to make WSU successful and fewer people in Pullman.

Any normal person should feel bad for the real people affected by conference realignment and sad for the traditions we have lost.

But, for fans, as soon as they accept that they are powerless to change WSU’s conference fate, the free-er they may feel.

They need to hold their school’s leaders accountable. WSU needs to spend money wisely and chart a sustainable future, so fans shouldn’t resort to uncivilized personal attacks.

Don’t let the business side of athletics get in the way of your enjoyment of the sport.

In a world driven by business decisions, profits and vitriol, rise above and be a fan for the sake of the logo on your favorite player’s chest and the name on their back.

If you don’t recognize college sports and can’t bear to support them, try going to a game or watching it on TV first. Then make your decision.

You may find that whether the game is on Fox, ESPN or The CW, whether it’s USC-Michigan or WSU-Boise State, that the players put their bodies on the line, the coaches passionately protest referee calls and the fans cheer just as loud all the same.

Just look at the chaotic beauty of a game between WSU and San Jose State last Friday in Pullman. It had massive lead swings, athletic plays, gut wrenching decisions and unlikely heroes. With a 54-52 double overtime final, WSU may have won the game, but the real winners were those who watched it.

That’s college football and that’s what it’s all about.

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @Sam_C_Taylor.