This is the topic on any college football fan’s mind right now. I have to say, I think it’s a bunch of brouhaha, but I can understand why it’s going on at the same time.
Teams moving conferences because old heads can’t figure things out. Schools that make no sense being where they are now, simply because of location. I will do what I can to help make sense of it. It’s Hard to make a promise as it’s all confusing even when people who are in the middle of it can’t explain it to us little people.
Let’s dive into this.
All has to do with the incoming implosion of the PAC-12. Money is a major factor in all of this for sure, along with media rights. The Power 5 has a real stranglehold on the major networks, they make more money, therefore pay their schools more money. They are able to recruit way better and higher value recruits, and when was the last PAC-12 team to win the National Championship? That would be USC…in 2004. What do you do when you’re frustrated with your current job, and can go and make more money, in a better environment, with better coworkers? You take it of course!
Who is leaving the PAC 12? The easier answer is, only 4 teams are left; Cal, Stanford, Washington State, and Oregon State.
Here’s a rundown of who is going where:
- Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah, non PAC-12 teams like UCF, BYU, Cincinnati, and Houston are heading to the Big 12
- Oregon and Washington are off to the Big 10
The questions I have are, where will it leave the 12-team playoff expansion? How will it affect that? The Big 12 schedule will be interesting too, there are more teams than weeks in the season, so how will they manage? Are they going to have separate divisions? They must, right? These teams will have some serious ground to travel just for conference play!
Maybe in the long run we will look back on this situation and say they were the right moves. However, it will be interesting to see how the next months, let alone years unfold. Be sure to check in to INSC regularly for more information as it comes out!