Pac-12 nixes expansion … Updating this week’s news that the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC conferences have confirmed that they have agreed to form an alliance of Power-5 leagues, the Pac-12 announced earlier today that the conference will NOT be looking to expand. There had been some speculation that the Pac-12 might try and get into Texas by targeting several of the remaining schools in the state that were left behind when Oklahoma and Texas bolted the Big XII for the SEC earlier this summer. Unfortunately, the available Texas schools such as Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU just don’t have the gravitas of a Texas or an Oklahoma.
The alliance between the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC was an obvious reaction to the SEC’s move to add college football powerhouses Texas and Oklahoma earlier this month which will likely make the conference, which already dominates the college football landscape, even stronger. However, don’t expect any immediate change to the college football landscape by the alliance. Indeed, it still isn’t exactly clear how the alliance will play out other than it will likely involve scheduling considerations at some point down the road, although it also means it is unlikely that any of the three will be raiding the other two for teams any time soon.
It also still leaves the question of what happens to those remaining teams in the Big XII. The conference could look to add several programs from the American Athletic Conference such as Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis and Central Florida which just might be enough for the Big XII to hold onto its power-5 status. There has also been some speculation that the AAC could try and absorb the remaining Big XII schools to form one large potentially super second tier conference.
