Pac-12 football: Ranking the league’s 10 best expansion candidates
By John Scimeca
Forgive embattled Pac-12 commissioner Greg Kliavkoff if he sounds terse or defensive during media days in his remarks about the long-term viability of his conference.
The league is, after all, reeling from the loss of its two Los Angeles-based schools to the Big Ten. The departure of UCLA and USC will soon deprive the conference of its most iconic basketball and football brands, not to mention the talent and national attention that new Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley has brought with him from OU.
Oregon and Washington, the league’s two most powerful remaining athletic programs, are interested in leaving for the Big Ten and may do so soon if the league will have them. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah are rumored targets of the suddenly attractive-looking Big 12.
Stanford and Cal are reeling from the defections of UCLA and USC and have struggled to be relevant in recent years. Oregon State’s 7-6 record last year was its first winning mark since 2013, and Washington State has finished in the AP Top 25 once since 2004. It’s not exactly a conference in good shape right now.
Which schools are the best candidates for Pac-12 football to consider in its potential expansion after the losses of UCLA and USC?
What does the Pac-12 do moving forward?
Does the conference revert back to being the Pac-10 and stand pat with its remaining programs? This may be preferred by the more hesitant school leaders, but today isn’t the right college athletics and media environment to do so. By choosing not to expand, the league will simply wait for Oregon and Washington to bolt elsewhere while shrinking into mediocrity.
Pac-12 football has a few expansion options on the table. Some are more unusual than others. In ranking these 10 potential expansion candidates, the league must consider competitive football programs that will “bring value” in terms of signing a new media rights deal — the revenue from these TV contracts is fueling the latest frenzied round of conference realignment moves across the nation.
This list assumes that the Big 12 will remain intact (though that’s not 100% given) and that several Group of Five conferences will be ripe for the picking. A few of these expansion candidates are outside the box, but that kind of thinking might be the only way that the league can remain viable in the future.
Who are the 10 best candidates for the newest round of potential Pac-12 football expansion?