Pac-12 Expansion?

After USC’s and UCLA’s money dash to the Big 10, what will the Pac-12 do? Expand? Stand on 10? Who knows? I suppose the first order of Pac-12 business is to make sure that the defection of the LA schools are the only defections. That means insuring Oregon and Washington are staying put. Personally, I think that Cal and Stanford are and have always been the center of the Pac-12 universe. But that’s just me. Everyone else appears to think that retaining Oregon and Washington are the key to keeping what remains of the conference intact. Then what? If expansion is next, where should the Pac-12 look? The Athletic asked the same question of some industry honks. Each mentioned one school first.

San Diego State

I can see it. It would add a little Southern California flavor to a conference that just lost a lot of Southern California flavor. The Athletic mentions the possibility that the Pac-12 doesn’t take the California State University system seriously. That seems silly. The CSU system boasts a fine collection of colleges. Besides, the conference already includes the state schools of Oregon, Washington, and Arizona. 

A couple other CSUs worthy of consideration:

Fresno State

San Jose State

After San Diego State, the Athletic’s industry honks mentioned another Mountain West school.

Boise State

San Diego State and Boise State would be fine additions. Each has had terrific recent football and basketball moments. Each has even had recent fine moments against Pac-12 schools. 

One of my favorite aspects of the Pac-12 has been it’s geographic perfection. Each school is paired with a regional rival. Cal-Stanford. Oregon-Oregon State. Washington-Washington State. The somewhat forced Colorado-Utah. And the dearly departed UCLA-USC. To continue that terrific feature, I’d consider adding:

Colorado State

Utah State

That would give the formerly unmatched Utah and Colorado an in-state rival. The conference’s geographic perfection continues.

Another duo that would add a nice geographic pairing.

UNLV

Nevada

San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State, San Jose State, Colorado State, Utah State, UNLV, Nevada. Of those, I’d probably most like the additions of San Diego State and San Jose State/Fresno State the best. With Boise State right there as well. 

No disrespect to any of those schools, they don’t move the national needle as much as losing USC and UCLA. No addition will. If I was making this expansion decision and wanted to take a bigger swing, I might go after…

BYU

TCU

It’d be a little odd to have a couple schools with strong religious ties in the Pac-12. It’s an odd time.