As the Pac-12 nears extinction, here’s the influence on men’s

• Myron Medcalf Close Myron Medcalf ESPN Personnel Author Covers college basketball Joined ESPN.com in 2011 Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato Jeff

• Borzello Close Jeff Borzello ESPN Personnel Writer Basketball recruiting insider. Joined ESPN in 2014. Graduate of

  University of Delaware.Aug 7

  , 2023, 09:10 AM ET For a quick moment Friday morning, the

• college sports world appeared like it might stay steady. Word coming out of the Pac-12 was one of optimism that the league would stick together, with the adjustment of Colorado last week from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 being the only move.Within five hours, the landscape of college sports was forever altered. The Pac-12 was essentially completed as a power conference– and perhaps as a conference, period– and the Big Ten and Big 12

  had included numerous schools to their subscription, while concerns about what’s next for almost every significant conference were asked all weekend.Editor’s Picks 1 Related To evaluate: Oregon and Washington left the Pac-12 for the Big 10, while Arizona, Arizona State and Utah headed to the Big 12. It’s a possibly sensational and abrupt end to a league that can be traced back more than 100 years, with four of the very first six members of the conference– California

, Oregon State

, Washington State and Stanford– the last ones standing.( Or the ones excluded in the cold.) Simply over a years ago, the Pac-12 was one of the most significant brand names at the table, even passing up a possibility to include Texas and Oklahoma. Now it’s on the verge of extinction.The Apple Cup rivalry games in between Washington and Washington State? Those will be less frequent, at best. Ditto for the Oregon and Oregon State competition once known as the Civil War.The ACC and SEC were not involved in this round of adjustment, however they’re not totally exempt from the conversation. The SEC is certainly enjoying and weighing whether it requires to respond to the Big Ten’s growth with its own, while these relocations come on the heels of Florida State’s president stating it may have to think about leaving the ACC.Realignment conversations are mostly centered around college football– and ESPN already tackled most of the appropriate football concerns– but there are widespread implications for college basketball too. What does this all mean and what concerns are left to be answered?This is B1G. pic.twitter.com/rrBWAWF6xZ!.?.!— Big Ten Network( @BigTenNetwork )August 4, 2023 Here’s what we understand Borzello: The biggest headline coming out of Friday was the death of the Pac-12 as we know it.

Arizona, Arizona State and Utah seem poised to leave the Pac-12 for the Huge 12, while Oregon and Washington were officially revealed as Big 10 schools beginning next August. This comes just a week after Colorado officially left the Pac-12 for the Big 12. Only Stanford, California, Oregon State and Washington State

stay. The Big 10 will be at 18 schools once USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington sign up with, while the Big 12 will now

have 16 teams with the

addition of the “4 Corner “schools.Medcalf: We know that the Big 12– the pound-for-pound leader in recent years– is the indisputable leader of guys’s college basketball. The Huge 12 has actually ended up first in KenPom’s conference rankings in eight of the last ten years, an impressive stretch. The league has also caught two of the last 3 championship games. And Texas and Kansas State reached the Elite 8 last season. The Huge 12’s status as the sport’s kingpin was enhanced, however, when it gained Arizona in the realignment turmoil. With Houston on its way to the Big 12 too, males’s college basketball’s most dominant assembly is the Huge 12 after what appears to be the end of the Pac-12, a minimum of as we know it. The gap between this league and the rest of college basketball might expand in the years to come. ⏳ pic.twitter.com/5iSL4iMzCz!.?.!— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference )August 5, 2023 Here’s what’s still in the air Borzello: What takes place to the four staying Pac-12 schools? Could the Pac-12 hire from the Mountain West or West Coast Conference and try to restore around Stanford, California, Washington State and Oregon State? Sure, but it’s more likely the Mountain West tries to tempt them, not the other method around– particularly thinking about San Diego State would have needed to pay more than$30 million had it attempted to leave the league for the Pac-12 a couple of weeks back. There has actually been some Huge 10 and ACC speculation surrounding Stanford and Cal for scholastic factors(and in Stanford’s case, its incredible all-around athletics), but it’s hard to imagine a power conference trying to land the Beavers and Cougars. Then there are the questions surrounding the ACC

‘s membership, whether the Big Ten and SEC are content with their current collection of schools and even where UConn stands. Basically, adjustment is never truly over. Get your favorite live sports, stories and originals with ESPN+, Disney +and Hulu. Upgrade to a Disney Bundle plan and start streaming something for everyone today! Medcalf: We do not learn about the future of the ACC, one of the most important leagues in college basketball. While a great deal of the chatter has centered on Florida State and the impact the loss of FSU football would have on the ACC, the league likewise features the best competition in males’s college basketball: Duke-North Carolina. The Pac-12 has lost its status as a major conference and it does not appear to have a path to restore that, even if it decided to just emphasize basketball. But a potential ACC separation could send some of college basketball’s most trusted teams– UNC, Duke and Virginia– to other leagues and change the landscape of the sport. The grant of rights in the

powerful leagues from promoting a brand-new event that might just feature the leading schools, while excluding the rest, to keep all the cash attached to the postseason? Anything appears possible at this point.