By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Football Writer
The Pac-12 said Thursday it would stand up to its membership and not try to add schools to the 12-team conference, making it very unlikely that the Big 12 schools left behind by Texas and Oklahoma will find new power. Find Five Homes.
The announcement comes two days after Pac-12, Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten committed to collaborate on governance issues and appointments in football and basketball.
The formation of a three conference alliance was announced a little less than a month after the Southeastern Conference invited Texas and Oklahoma to join the league in 2025, which would coincide with the end of the Big 12’s current television deal.
With the Pac-12 expansion from the board of directors and both the ACC and the Big Ten publicly declaring that they are happy with their current membership, the eight remaining Big 12 schools seem to have limited options than sticking together.
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“The Texas and Oklahoma decision created significant instability in college athletics, and I don’t think instability is good for college athletics, especially given all of the other problems we are currently facing,” said George Kliavkoff, commissioner of Pac-12 told The Associated Press. “I think you’ve heard my colleagues in the ACC and the Big Ten agree with the position that we need to restore stability to college athletics.”
The Pac-12 appears to be able to take advantage of some of the benefits of the expansion through the alliance with the Big Ten and ACC, such as:
Kliavkoff had recently spoken openly that at the conference a group of sports directors and university presidents had analyzed the possibility of expansion and that their work would soon be completed.
Kilavkoff declined to say which schools had contacted the Pac-12 for membership opportunities, or even how many.
The stability that the alliance is striving for also includes a quick and transparent decision on enlargement.
“We did the necessary work to determine that we are happy with our current makeup and believe we can be successful by 12,” said Kilavkoff. “It was a unanimous vote of our presidents and chancellors to stay at 12.”
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