Less than one month after one of the most impactful days in the history of college athletics that saw six Pac-12 programs leave the storied conference, more dominoes fell on Friday when the ACC announced they were adding Cal, Stanford and SMU to the conference in 2024-25.
Last month, Oregon and Washington both finalized their moves to the Big Ten and Arizona, Arizona State and Utah all made the news official that they would be joining the Big 12 in 2024. The Big Ten will have four former Pac-12 schools in 2024: Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington and the Big 12 has the “Four Corner” Pac-12 schools. The SEC will also be getting stronger next season when Texas and Oklahoma depart from the Big 12.
While the recent changes in conference realignment were sparked by the increasing value of TV rights for college football, the shuffling will have a huge impact on college basketball.
The Pac-12 now has only two schools remaining: Oregon State and Washington State. They have limited options going forward with the AAC announcing this week they wouldn’t be expanding out West. Oregon State and Washington State’s best option appears to be to merge with the Mountain West.
With the addition of the three new programs, it casts serious doubt about if the ACC actually got better as a conference in basketball. Florida State reportedly could have its eyes on departing the ACC in the future. Florida State was one of a few reported schools that were against the ACC adding Cal, Stanford and SMU.
Even if the ACC in fact didn’t get better like the other major conferences, we can identify the major moves taking place for the 2024-25 college basketball season.
The Big 12, already considered to be the, will get even stronger by adding traditional power Arizona in addition to Arizona State and Utah — schools who have had sporadic success throughout the years in basketball. Coming on the heels of resurgent Houston…
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