June of 2022 marks a date that all college football fans, nationwide, will remember. It was the month that two colleges, USC and UCLA, announced they would be leaving the Pac-12, to join the Big Ten, starting in the 24-25 season.
George Kliavkoff, the Pac-12 commissioner, planned to use finances as a bargaining chip to keep UCLA within the alliance. However, UCLA was supposed to make $62 million a year from the Big Ten’s new mega-media rights deal, about double what they would receive from the Pac-12 during the 2024 season. In exchange, the team would have to travel a lot, as most games would be in other states. Travel expenses for UCLA would add up to $10 million a year. If the Pac-12 could somehow match the $62 million UCLA was expected to get from their new deal, they might have a chance of staying together. This would mean paying UCLA significantly more than the other Pac-12 colleges. University of Oregon interim president Patrick Phillips vehemently opposed this idea, saying that he’d “never have the Ducks in a conference where they have to take less money than UCLA.” This effectively killed Kliavkoff’s proposal. This shift represents a major shift in the priorities of colleges. Flying athletes across the country every week would be detrimental to their academics. In addition, it alienates fans who would be unable to watch most games. Colleges are only doing this for one reason: money. Fans and faculty alike are outraged. One OSU professor, who wished to remain anonymous, feels strongly about this. “I think it’s a shame that these sports programs are forgetting why these students are in college.” Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah later left to join colleges like UCLA and USC and other leaving teams to play in the Big 12 for the 24-25 season. The Pac-12 is currently the Pac-2, with only Washington State and Oregon State University (OSU) remaining. What remained of the PAC-2 was furious. On September 9, 2023, WSU and OSU filed a complaint against the ten departing schools. They claimed that each of their announcements qualified as grounds to remove their voting power. The lawsuit claims that this precedent was set when the first two departing colleges (USC and UCLA) lost voting power after their announcements in 2022. WSU and OSU claim that the other eight schools should have lost their voting power too. Surprisingly, the Pac-2 is predicted to be a conference for the 2024-25 season. Although, there perhaps aren’t many other options for WSU and OSU. There are murmurs of a Pac-5, but nothing yet…
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