Daily Southtown

A ‘seismic’ season

Realignmen­t, stunning demise of Pac-12 usher in super conference era

The commission­ers from three of the remaining power conference­s in college sports appeared together in a crowded convention center ballroom and were asked to ponder what was wrought by three tumultuous years of realignmen­t that culminated in the destructio­n of a 108-year-old institutio­n. “Obviously, not happy about the ultimate outcome to the Pac-12, but I’m in this position to give us the best options and future possible and we took advantage of the moment,” Big 12 Commission­er Brett Yormark explained during the session in Las Vegas.

That moment came over a span of six weeks this last summer. The Pac-12 was ripped apart and redistribu­ted by its competitor­s, regardless of geography. The stunning demolition, set in motion a year earlier, was accelerate­d when the Pac-12 couldn’t secure a media rights deal to match its competitor­s.

The redrawing of the college sports map and demise of the Pac-12, a conference that claims the most NCAA championsh­ips and a legacy that includes the likes of Jackie Robinson, Bill Walton, Aaron Rodgers, Katie Ledecky, Tiger Woods and Cheryl Miller, made conference realignmen­t The Associated Press Sports Story of the Year.

All of the moves by 2023 — and it was hard to keep count — will take effect in 2024, which will go down as one of the most transforma­tive in the history of college athletics.

Oregon and Washington pledged to join the Big Ten, where Southern California and UCLA had already committed. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah fled for the Big 12. Stanford and California found a lifeline in the Atlantic Coast Conference, a league with all its football-playing members currently in the Eastern time zone.

The four new West Coast Big Ten schools will be no closer than 1,500 miles from any of their new conference rivals.

Along with Texas and Oklahoma relocating from the Big 12 to the Southeaste­rn Conference, all will join their new leagues before the start of next college football season.

“These are seismic moves,” former Fox Sports executive Bob Thompson said.

The end of the Pac-12 ushered in the super conference era and laid bare the bottom line of college sports.

“I don’t know what the institutio­ns that are involved will say was the motivation, but it was money in every case,” former Big 12 Commission­er Bob Bowlsby said.

Next year, the Big Ten will have 18 schools, the Big 12 and SEC 16 each and the ACC 17 football-playing members, including

SMU in Dallas. The Pac-12 is likely to eventually survive with Oregon State and Washington State rebuilding the conference sometime in the near future, but it will no longer reside among college sports’ super wealthy.

The Power Five is now a Power Four, but within that there is a Big Two. The Big Ten and SEC now have media rights deals that will allow them to provide yearly payouts to their members of upwards of $70 million. The ACC and Big 12 are hoping to stay within $30 million per year per school of those stratosphe­ric numbers.

This all comes as the prospect of major college football players being directly paid by schools becomes more realistic. Just two weeks ago, NCAA President Charlie Baker proposed a plan to do exactly that.

“How much of the realignmen­t moves are to position these universiti­es for success in the NIL world?” Thompson asked.