The Arizona Wildcats, Arizona State Sun Devils, and Utah Utes will leave the Pac-12 and join the Big 12 in 2024, per a report from Brett McMurphy of Action Network.
The trio of schools would bring the total number departing the Pac-12 Conference in the last week to six. The Colorado Buffaloes were the first and officially announced a move to the Big 12 Conference on July 27.
Earlier on Friday evening, the Big Ten Conference officially announced that the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies will join in 2024. They will join the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans, which was officially announced last summer.
Arizona and Arizona State have been members of the Pac-12 Conference since 1978, which was then named the Pac-8 and changed to Pac-10 with the new additions. Utah joined the Pac-10 in 2011, along with Colorado, which resulted in the conference name changing to Pac-12.
With the addition of Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA, the Big Ten will expand to a total of 18 members spanning states from coast-to-coast.
The Big 12 currently stands at 14 members, but will lose both Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC next season. With Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah joining, the Big 12 will increase to 16 members in 2024, the same as the SEC.
Brett McMurphy reported on the reasons why the four Pac-12 schools are bolting to the Big 12.
Arizona, Arizona State and Utah — like Colorado — opted to move to the Big 12, sources said, because of the Big 12’s stability and a more lucrative financial outlook under commissioner Brett Yormark. Also, the uncertainty of the Pac-12’s future without USC and UCLA and the inability of Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff to secure a new Grant of Rights deal played a role.
With all of the moves to the Big Ten and Big 12, the Pac-12 will be left with only four schools — California, Oregon State, Stanford, and Washington State. Here’s more from Brett McMurphy on their future.
With additional schools leaving the Pac-12, the Mountain West would “be open” to adding remaining Pac-12 schools to the league, sources told Action Network.
The Mountain West currently has a linear television deal with FOX and CBS Sports Network with additional games on CBS through the 2025 season. Another possibility for the Mountain West, depending on how many schools are remaining in the Pac-12, could be a merger of some type between the two leagues, a source said.
College football realignment rolls on and, as usual, it’s about the revenue from television deals.
Big 12(16) moves in to third place now behind the SEC & B1G.
The Big 12 said earlier in the realignment cycle they wanted to be a four-time zone league. Oregon State and Washington State will help achieve that goal, and would be better fits than Gonzaga, which has not had a football team since WWII, a huge reason why they left the Big Sky Conference in 1979.
Maybe Z but they might stop at 26 for now. I really don’t think ESPN and Fox will pay full price for those two. But they might be able to get them at a bargain now.
We’ll see soon.
The state of AZ is on Standard Time 12 Months of the Year.
They’re in the PTZ from the Time PDT starts in ? May till it’s End in ? November.
Utah & Arizona R close enough geographically to the Pacific that they R attractive to the Pacific Coast’s Fans & Time Zone.
BYU’s 2024 Schedule was already renewing The Rivalry w UUT Utes.
That Game will be put into the b 12 Mix as their Rivalry.
1 of BYU’s many Nonconference Foes who already had interest in playing BYU can easily be lined up as the 3rd 1A September Match.
Interesting to see what Stanford does. Speculation is they may go independent. This may relegate them to group of 5 Army/Navy status. I know they have produced some very solid NFL talent, Jim Plunkett, John Elway, John Lynch, Marshawn Lynch, Andrew Luck, Christian McCaffery etc. During the Harbaugh/Luck era they were a top 5 national power but I know they have been down before. If Stanford goes independent I really wonder how they don’t become something like Mass.
Another question who are the remaining Pac schools are going to play next year?
Now that 16 teams are headed to the Big 12, let’s speculate what the schedule could look like in 2024 assuming a 9-game conference schedule! I’ll use the 3+6+6 model. Each team plays 3 annual (mostly) geographic rivals plus 6 of the other 12 teams on a rotating, bi-annual basis. All teams will face each other at least once every 2 years and visit each stadium once every 4 years. Top 2 teams at the end of the year will play in the CCG-Conference Championship Game.
Annual rivals per team
1. Arizona—ASU, BYU, Utah
2. ASU—Arizona, Utah, BYU
3. BYU—Utah, Arizona, ASU
4. Utah—BYU, ASU, Arizona
5. Colorado—OSU, KSU, Kansas
6. OSU—Colorado, Kansas, KSU
7. Kansas—KSU, OSU, Colorado
8. KSU— Kansas, Colorado, OSU
9. Baylor—Houston, TCU, Texas Tech
10. Houston—Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU
11. TCU— Texas Tech, Baylor, Houston
12. Texas Tech—TCU, Houston, Baylor
13. Cincinnati—WV, UCF, Iowa State
14. Iowa State—WV, Cincinnati, UCF
15. UCF— Cincinnati, WV, Iowa State
16. West Virginia— Iowa State, UCF, Cincinnati
For the remainder of the conference schedule, each team will play the other 6 teams in their own color group in even years such as 2024 and then play 6 in their opposite color group in odd years starting in 2025. The groups are approximately balanced in terms of relative strengths–by final 2022 cumulative rankings from College Football News—and in terms of geography (e.g. 2 schools in each group are from Texas and 1 each from Arizona, Kansas, and Utah).
Red Group – with Final 2022 College Football News Ranking (sum total of rankings = 384)
1. Arizona-54
2. BYU-58
3. Colorado-103
4. Kansas-47
5. Baylor-50
6. TCU-4
7. Cincinnati-36
8. UCF-32
Green Group – Final 2022 Ranking (sum total = 357)
1. ASU-76
2. Utah-9
3. OSU-45
4. KSU-10
5. Houston-65
6. Texas Tech-27
7. Iowa State-59
8. West Virginia-66
2024 Conference Opponents by Team
1. Arizona—ASU, BYU, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Baylor, TCU, Cincinnati, UCF
2. ASU—Arizona, Utah, BYU, OSU, KSU, Houston, Texas Tech, ISU, and WV
3. BYU—Utah, Arizona, ASU, Colorado, Kansas, Baylor, TCU, Cincinnati, and UCF
4. Utah—BYU, ASU, Arizona, OSU, KSU, Houston, Texas Tech, ISU, and WV
5. Colorado—OSU, KSU, KU, Arizona, BYU, Baylor, TCU, Cincinnati, and UCF
6. OSU—Colorado, KU, KSU, ASU, Utah, Houston, Texas Tech, ISU, and WV
7. Kansas—KSU, OSU, Colorado, Arizona, BYU, Baylor, TCU, Cincinnati, and UCF
8. KSU—KU, Colorado, ASU, Utah, OSU, Houston, Texas Tech, ISU, and WV
9. Baylor—Houston, TCU, TTU, Arizona, BYU, Colorado, Kansas, Cincinnati, and UCF
10. Houston—Baylor, TTU, TCU, ASU, Utah, OSU, KSU, ISU, and WV
11. TCU—TTU, Baylor, Houston, Arizona, BYU, Colorado, Kansas, Cincinnati, and UCF
12. Texas Tech—TCU, Houston, Baylor, ASU, Utah, OSU, KSU, ISU, and WV
13. Cincinnati—WV, UCF, ISU, Arizona, BYU, Colorado, Kansas, Baylor, and TCU
14. Iowa State—WV, Cincinnati, UCF, ASU, Utah, OSU, KSU, Houston, and Texas Tech
15. UCF—Cincinnati, WV, ISU, Arizona, BYU, Colorado, Kansas, Baylor, TCU
16. WV—ISU, UCF, Cincinnati, ASU, Utah, OSU, KSU, Houston, and Texas Tech
Kansas State – Iowa State is the longest uninterrupted rivalry in college football. It will be played every year.
Looks good, but I think ISU/KU/KSU should be preserved.
Just switch OSU and ISU.
Former WAC Pod: AZ, ASU, Utah, BYU
Former SWC Pod: TTU, Baylor, TCU, Houston
Former Big 8 Pod: Colorado, KSU, Kansas, ISU
Former Big East/AAC +OSU Pod: OSU, Cincy, WVU, UCF
OSU won’t be happy about it, but they’ll just have to deal with it.
I think maybe I’d swap Oklahoma State (who has been in the Big 12 south, divisionless Big 12, and actually the SWC too) with Houston, (who has been in the AAC and C-USA with Cincy and UCF) if I were going with this scheduling model.
I can see other options too.
Yeah, you’re right about Houston’s rivalries with Cincinnati and UCF, and OSU has history with TCU, Baylor, and TTU. The thing about that though is that it’s hard to have Houston be in the same state as as the 3 other Texas schools, and not play them every year. While OSU is closer to TTU than Houston, and equidistant to TCU, Baylor is only a 3 hour drive from UH.
I guess you could do something like this:
Former WAC Pod: AZ, ASU, Utah, BYU
Former Big 8 Pod: Colorado, KSU, Kansas, ISU
TTU: Baylor, TCU, OSU
Baylor: TTU, TCU, Houston
TCU: TTU, Baylor, OSU
Houston: UCF, Baylor, Cincy
OSU: TTU, TCU, WVU
Cincy: OSU, UCF, WVU
WVU: Cincy, UCF, OSU
UCF: Houston, Cincy, WVU
Arizona is the same as Pacific Time 8 months of the year. 4 months of the year it will be the same as Mountain Time.
Dan-ke, Arizona,
Those 4 Months must be parts of November – March.
For as long as I’ve been 18+ Years I have disliked savings Time’s, IMO, unneeded scheduling complexities.
Importantly, Arizona is the same as Pacific Time for all of football season except the last three weeks of the season, plus they prefer night games in the first several weeks of the season due to the heat. They can easily fill a 10:30 Eastern window for the vast majority of the season.
Arizona & Arizona State,
Woohoo!
B12 after Dark Teams are going to B bushwacking successfull Vs. non conference Foes.
IMO, UAZ, ASU, BYU, UT, CO will have a Circadian rhythms/jet lag Clock advantage Vs. B12 ETZ Teams. e.g. 0815 MT start = 1015 ET finish after 0145 AM ETZ.
MT Teams playing Evening ET Games in OH, WV, FL will be starting @ dinnertime Mountain.