(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
As of Friday afternoon, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah had each reportedly applied for membership to the Big 12. The Irving, Texas-based league is expected to approve them and become the country’s third 16-team conference.
That leaves four still-proud institutions remaining in the once-proud Pac-12.
It’s crazy to think that Stanford — the most successful athletic department in the country when it comes to winning championships, having won 26 of the 29 Directors’ Cups honoring the most titles across all NCAA sanctioned sports — would not find a home in one of the four power conferences.
Maybe down the line the Big Ten won’t be able to resist adding the academic prestige of Stanford and Cal, along with the connection to the Bay Area, where tens of thousands of Big Ten alumni reside. But now, it appears, is not that moment.
Stanford’s football program lost its momentum in the last few years under David Shaw, and now it is rebuilding under new coach Troy Taylor. One can easily imagine a lot of quiet afternoons in Stanford Stadium coming up.
The Cardinal could decide to join Notre Dame as an independent, but Stanford doesn’t have the ability to fund athletics on its own like the Fighting Irish can thanks to its TV deal with NBC. And to be able to compete in all sports at the level it is accustomed, Stanford is going to need help from a conference distribution.
Cal is in much worse shape than Stanford, and it will need to lean on that historic relationship going forward to position itself for whatever is to come.
As for Oregon State and Washington State, it’s hard not to feel bad for these institutions and their fans. The Beavers and Cougars have lost their in-state big brothers to the Big Ten, and there is no clear path forward that will keep them in a power conference.
The totality of this day will be felt most in Corvallis and Pullman.
“We are disappointed with the recent decisions by some of our Pac-12 peers,” Washington State president Kirk Schulz and athletic director Pat Chun said in a statement. “While we had hoped that our membership would remain together, this outcome was always a possibility, and we have been working diligently to determine what is next for Washington State athletics.”
The Big 12 could have the option, once the dust settles from adding four Pac-12 schools, to go after any of the remaining four at reduced shares.