Huge 12 votes in Utah, ASU, bringing league to 16

• Pete Thamel, ESPNAug 4, 2023, 08:54 PM ET

The Huge 12 is quickly getting bigger, as the school’s presidents and chancellors voted unanimously to formally add Utah and Arizona State on Friday night.They are expected to be presented soon together with Arizona, which was approved Friday. The only challenge staying is a University of Utah Board of Trustees vote, which is anticipated to take place Friday.When the three schools go official, it will bump up the league’s subscription to 16 teams beginning in the 2024-25 academic year.Editor’s Picks 2 Related Both Utah and Arizona State made an application for membership prior to the vote, per ESPN sources, a necessary first

step for schools to be authorized to switch leagues.The statement could come as quickly as the next 24 hours, as there’s an urgency on both sides to press through after a chaotic day that saw Oregon and Washington leave the Pac-12 for the Huge Ten.The move crystalizes what will be remembered as an excessive spiral for the Pac-12, which started Friday morning with optimism about the league’s

presidents and chancellors agreeing to the schools ‘grant of rights for a new tv contract.It’s anticipated to end the day with simply 4 members, as Oregon and Washington were revealed as formally in the Big 10 late Friday afternoon.

Colorado announced recently it was leaving for the Big 12. With USC and UCLA announcing their exit in 2015, it’s expected that eight total schools have left the league in a span of nearly 18 months. Not long after taking control of the Huge

12 in June 2022, commissioner Brett Yormark started targeting the so-called “Corner Schools”for membership.The crucial strategic maneuver to get to this point came when Yormark opened up the special negotiation window early with both FOX and ESPN and basically jumped the Pac-12 in line for a television

contract extension. At the time, the Huge 12 had another year remaining, but that relocation changed the anticipated chronological order and wound up charting a course that improved the whole landscape of college sports.The Pac-12’s battles to get an economically competitive tv deal in the wake of that relocation resulted in this day. The primary streaming deal from Apple wasn’t enough to save the league.Once the last 3″Corner Schools “are formalized, it will build the Big

12 out to a 16-team conference. It would be the very same size as the SEC and two smaller than the 18-team Big 10. The ACC has 14 full-time football members.