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Whether it’s the latest Mountain West-PAC 12 shakeup, Texas and Oklahoma bolting to the SEC, or even just your local college sports website expanding its coverage (Nothing personal, diehard Mountain West readers),
College fans aren’t the biggest supporters of change.
A community that embraces traditions and history isn’t afraid to voice its opinions on the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, especially on the football field.
But while it feels like the change has been non-stop in this modern era as we yearn for the “good ole days”, what better way to introduce our PAC-12 coverage than to take a look back at what could be the most infamous college conference still going?
Back When Numbers Mattered
Remember when the number in the conference name actually reflected the number of schools?
Born out of scandal, several well-known PAC schools were looking for their next home.
California, USC, UCLA and Washington had left the Pacific Coast Conference (the original new kid on the PAC, born in 1915) due to a “pay-to-play” scandal. Funny how times change.
These four schools would go on to form the Athletic Association of Western Universities in 1959. Stanford would join a month later, with Washington State following in 1962, now informally known as “The Big Six”.
Oregon and Oregon State were next in the summer of 1964, now renamed the Pacific Athletic Conference, or PAC-8.
After roughly a decade of the PAC-8, Arizona State and Arizona came to the party, birthing the PAC-10.
These 10 go on for a good 20 years, that is, until the new kid next door moved in, the Big 12 Conference.
Conference Rivals, Out of Conference…
When the Big 12 was formed in February 1994, there might have been a sense of nerves in the air for the PAC-10.
Who is the go-to conference on this side of the Mississippi? The PAC wanted to make sure it was them.
That is likely why the conference went all in on trying to recruit the University of Texas (Texas, Texas, Texas. We will hear more about them.) and the University of Colorado, all before the Big 12 had even had its first-ever game. Despite aggressive recruiting efforts, the Longhorns and the Buffaloes passed on the PAC-10 in December 1994.
“Before the Big 12 could name a commissioner or even play a game, it nearly became the angry, betrayed, not-so-big 11.” – Associated Press, Dec. 23, 1994
Life moved on. The Big 12 did their thing, the PAC-10 continued to do theirs. They even met a few times (2006 Rose Bowl, anyone?)
It seemed like the two would go on coexisting.
Larry Scott became the commissioner of the PAC-10 in July 2009, and co-existence quickly went out the window.
Gotta Make The Network Happy
Soon after Scott sat in the head chair, a shakeup was imminent.
In the summer of 2010, Scott and the conference invited six Big 12 schools to join the PAC: Colorado, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Texas.
With the Buffaloes first to jump, it felt like the cards were all in Scott and Co.’s hands.
“The remaining five schools are expected to join Colorado, but not until the demise of the Big 12 becomes certain. The core of the Big 12, especially Texas, wanted to keep the conference together and that could have been achieved if only Colorado were leaving.” Bleacher Report’s Marlin Terry wrote in June 2010.
Did the PAC have a chance to effectively kill off the Big 12? How close was this Texas deal?
If Texas made the move, schools such as Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech would likely follow, making the PAC-16, and as the kids like to say, a superconference.
A lot remains uncertain, but it is widely regarded that the Longhorns have pen in hand for a potential PAC deal before one major factor came to light: television.
The Longhorn Network, which has become an entire can of worms of college football conversation itself, was in the works. This did not align with the PAC’s network plans, which the conference was ready to push a lot of chips into.
The dust settled, Texas said no, and by July 1, 2010, Utah had found its way into the PAC-10, now officially the PAC-12.
Once again, time went on, but once again as well, it feels like the PAC missed out on a game-changing move.
Death By T.V. Larry Scott was quite the polarizing figure when he came aboard in the early 2010s (he still is to many PAC-12 purists)
Love him or hate him, his move to get ESPN and FOX to agree on a 12-year, $3 billion deal for the PAC-12’s conference rights was a home run in May 2011.
But in a time when conference-based networks were popping up, such as the Big Ten Network just a few years prior, the idea of a PAC-12 Network was at the top of mind.
This wasn’t going to be any other network. The PAC was planning on several regional-based channels (PAC-12 California, PAC-12 Arizona, etc.) to cover each of their markets individually.
This lofty idea also ran alongside the fact that the PAC-12 was doing this all alone. Unlike the Big Ten, which launched its network with FOX, the PAC wanted it all on its terms.
A more complex blueprint didn’t impress everyone. DirectTV, unlike other cable providers, stood its ground against the PAC pricing tiers and baggage.
In their lofty history, you could make the argument that DirectTV was the biggest rival to PAC-12 schools. The two were battling since the launch of the network in 2011, all the way up to when Mark Shuken took over as PAC-12 Network president in 2017.
“I was under no impression five years ago that at that stage DirecTV was going to launch the networks,” Shuken told The Athletic in 2022.
Even if your cable provider did have the PAC-12 Network, all the “tier one” matchups were to be found on ESPN and FOX due to their prior deal, making the network feel almost invisible.
It was getting towards the end of the 2010s. Big Ten Network was rolling, and ESPN launched the SEC Network, all while the PAC remained the littlest fish in the pond.
A laundry list of issues came from the PAC-12 Network, and with the pandemic coming around the corner to hurt them even more, the PAC started to feel like a sinking ship, and some schools took notice.
Full Circle in Cali
Almost exactly four years ago, USC and UCLA caught fans on their summer vacations off guard by announcing their intentions to join the Big Ten Conference.
Larry Scott’s original deal was running out of gas. The long-term agreement, which was once a saving grace, became an Achilles’ heel. In the 2020-2021 season, the PAC-12 distributed only $20 million to each school, while the Big Ten was reaching close to $50 million. The Trojans and Bruins knew they had to jump ship while they could, and being based in the massive LA market, which conference wouldn’t want them?
It was only a matter of time until the domino effect came into play, as the remaining PAC survivors scurried away to the Big 12, at least, the ones that could.
Just like when the California schools effectively killed off the PCC, they struck once again, with Oregon State and Washington State being the lone survivors.
By June 2024, the PAC-12 was officially dead.
A Road to Rebirth
Today, July 1, 2026, Texas State will become an official member of the PAC-12, becoming the eighth football-playing school to give the conference the minimum number needed to be considered an NCAA conference.
Just two years after the PAC seemed to be gone, it has made a mighty rebound.
How did it happen?
Instead of Oregon State and Washington State agreeing to jump ship, they viewed their “PAC-2” situation as an opportunity: What if we helped build something new?
It may not be at a Rose Bowl-Reggie Bush-Power Five level, but the new-look PAC-12 has made all the right moves, such as getting CBS on board for media rights and adding sport powerhouses like Gonzaga basketball and Boise State football.
The century-old conference lives on, but it does come at a cost of a 27-year-old conference: The Mountain West.
Talked about in length on our website, the MWC will see its first seismic change with a handful of conference staples now out of town. They have adapted with their own moves, adding Grand Canyon basketball and North Dakota State football.
In a time of constant change, conference realignment has become a game within a game. Could the new PAC-12 and Mountain West continue to play this metaphoric game of “RISK” with one another?
Yes or no, the PAC remains alive, and I have a feeling there are many more pages of conference history yet to be written.
