The Pac-12 is back (sort of)! What to know about

• Kyle Bonagura, ESPN

  • Staff WriterSep 12, 2024, 03:22 PM ET Close Covers college football.Joined ESPN in 2014. Gone To Washington State University.In a surprising move Wednesday night, news emerged that Boise State, Colorado

  State, Fresno State and San Diego State will leave the Mountain West Conference to join Oregon State and Washington State in the Pac-12 prior to the 2026-27 academic year.This most current round of conference adjustment comes from the collapse of the Pac-12 last summertime, which was put into motion the year before when UCLA and USC announced they were leaving for the Big Ten.Here’s what to learn about the moves.Jump to: What set this in motion?|Financial resources Worth of the conference |

  What other schools might join?What’s next for the Mountain West What set this in motion?When Oregon State and Washington State sued the Pac-12 last year for control of the conference board in the wake of 8 schools leaving, they defined in legal filings that they wanted to be able to reconstruct the conference. That didn’t suggest they absolutely planned to perform such a plan. However it has actually constantly been an attractive option, even if it was going to be complicated to pull off.The NCAA requires conferences to have at least 8 members, and after the Pac-12 broke down, it was afforded a two-year grace duration to exist listed below the minimum. That timeline notified how quickly the conference had to move in order to continue to exist.What do the financials look like?Editor’s Picks 1 Related This becomes part of why a number of sources within the market were doubtful this specific course forward was likely. The method the MWC laws are composed, departing schools need to pay an$18 million exit fee if they offer two years’notification. That number doubles if it’s less than that. The leaving schools here anticipate to owe$18 million each, which is more than$ 70

million collectively, plus the $40-plus million the Pac-12 will owe the Mountain West in poaching charges that were part of the conferences ‘scheduling arrangement for this season.The concept that the Pac-12 (OSU and WSU) and the schools leaving the MWC would dedicate that kind of cash was dismissed by many within the industry. Over the previous year, numerous sources referred to those fees as a nonstarter for this kind of reconstruct. Obviously, they were mistaken.The Pac-12 is expected to be in position to help the schools with the exit charges, in part due to withheld media rights

circulation charges to left members and other conference assets.How important will the brand-new conference deserve to media rights partners? Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire Here’s where it gets even more interesting. These six schools would not have actually paid the MWC more than $100 million just to get to this point if they did not feel confident the capacity for increased media rights payments would make it worth it on the back end.

Bear in mind, too, that it’s most likely the MWC will try to keep media rights distributions for the departing schools over the next two years, as it did when BYU, TCU and Utah all left in 2011 and was set to be the case when San Diego State previously flirted with a relocate to the Pac-12 last year.The leaving schools are expecting to receive somewhere in the community of $10 million annually in the Pac-12, a number provided to the schools by Navigate, a personal sports seeking advice from company hired by the conference. How accurate that forecast is stays to be seen, but it would roughly double what the MWC currently distributes.Who else will the Pac-12 target?It will likely intend high and move down the list. Cal and Stanford are the dream acquisitions, but making that occur would be very complex given they just went to the ACC, which is a party in four lawsuits

connecting to the potential departures of Clemson and Florida State. It’s worth wondering, though, if Cal and Stanford may have any remorse about their choices to sign up with the ACC given they are receiving just a 30%share of the league’s media rights distributions over the next seven years (in 2022-23, the ACC distributed an average of$44.8 million per school ).

While the ACC schools are more detailed

scholastic peers than what the revamped Pac-12 will appear like, how much that really matters in the big picture is up for debate.The more reasonable targets are Tulane and Memphis. However those two will need a much clearer understanding of the financial photo to leave the AAC than the limit used by the 4 MWC schools. There would be appeal in developing the leading football league outside the Power 4, however it would still need to make monetary sense. UTSA’s area makes it an excellent fit.Among the staying MWC schools, UNLV is still viewed as a likely candidate to also move. It examines all the boxes, but that it wasn’t in this first wave is informing. The MWC’s position is much weaker today than it was the other day, which might be used as utilize to bring in UNLV– or other MWC schools– at smaller yearly circulation rates, a la Cal and Stanford in the ACC. Air Force figures to be the other MWC school that has the most appeal.What’s next for the Mountain West?As things stand, its subscription will be at eight in two years: Flying force, Hawai’i, Nevada, New Mexico, San José State, UNLV, Utah State and Wyoming. One more defection would take the conference listed below the required NCAA minimum for which it– like the Pac-12 has now– would get a two-year grace duration to grow back to at least eight.There had actually been previous speculation that members might attempt to liquify the conference– a procedure that needs a 75% vote– in order to avoid exit fees to join the Pac-12, but that would indicate nine groups would have needed to be on board. It’s even less likely now given the leaving members are not expected to be able to vote.The money from the Pac-12 raid might help the conference restore– using the Pac-12 plan– but it’s still prematurely to say what it will look like long term.