October 4, 2024/ Midnight
Erie, Pa. — After a tumultuous year, the PAC 12 has bounced back to life. September 12, 2024, the conference announced the addition of four schools, all from the Mountain West Conference (MWC). Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, and Fresno State broke away from the MWC to join the conference of champions. These schools joined the deserted Oregon State and Washington State after the massive PAC 12 exodus to BIG 10, Big 12, and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) programs. Washington, Oregon, UCLA, and USC left the PAC 12 for the BIG 10. Arizona State, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado made their move to the Big 12, and Stanford and Cal quickly jumped the PAC 12 sinking ship for the ACC. All these former PAC 12 schools officially became members of their respective conferences and joined conference play on August 2, 2024.
The addition of four new universities to the PAC 12 shocked many in the collegiate sports community. The MWC was once the destined hope of many college sports fans for Washington State and Oregon State. Now, the reality stands that the MWC may be the new conference in shambles. A little over a week after the initial announcement of four teams joining the “new” PAC 12, Utah State agreed to become the seventh acting member. One week later, on October 1, 2024, the PAC 12 continued to add to their collection by picking up basketball powerhouse Gonzaga University.
What’s interesting about the addition of Gonzaga is that they don’t have a football program. Conference realignment, especially in this most recent era, heavily relies on football programs and their revenue futures. Boise State is a massive addition regarding football. In the most recent matchup against then-undefeated and top 25 team Washington State, Boise State left their mark destroying the Cougs 24-45. Boise’s “Smurf Turf” pulled in a record-breaking 37,711 fans, proving their fan base’s relevancy to any PAC 12 doubters. However, another differentiating point is that Gonzaga is also a smaller, private, catholic university nestled in Spokane, Washington. No other university currently aligned in the PAC 12 is private or religiously centered.
It may be tradition and nostalgia with an “old” PAC 12 I grew up with, but the new additions don’t seem to compete with the old. The universities don’t seem to have the same level of academic or regional prestige as Oregon, Stanford, Cal, and Washington. There is also a true loss of “rivalry” within the PAC 12, like true regular season games like the Apple Cup, and Civil War. I fear that these new additions, and the additions to come simply will not meet these high expectations and regional rivalry.
As a strong supporter of other sports like gymnastics, baseball, softball, and volleyball, conference realignment is huge and typically devastating. PAC 12 reigned supreme in the college softball world and had massive footholds in other sports like volleyball, softball, track and field, and many others. But now, with post 2024 conference realignment, all these former powerhouses are now spread out and going head-to-head with different levels of powerhouses.
