A monumental day in college athletics is on the horizon as the final conference realignment moves become official. The Pac-12 as we know it will dissolve Friday when Cal and Stanford join the ACC, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah become members of the Big 12 and Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington depart for the Big Ten.
SMU’s move to the ACC and Oklahoma and Texas’ arrival in the SEC became official in June and Friday moves mark the final realignment shifts for this academic year.
The Big 12 was the biggest player in conference realignment last season when it added BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to swell membership to 14.
The Big Ten will see its membership grow to 18 — making it the most populated conference in the sport. With big moves comes hefty travel, as all four new members will rack up airline miles when they take cross-country trips to some of the schools located on the East Coast.
Here are the five biggest takeaways on this season’s college basketball’s conference changes across Division I. Below that, we’ve got the list of all the schools moving to new leagues for the 2024-25 season.
Big 12 has strong case for best hoops conference
When the Big 12 added BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF last summer, the conference had a very strong case as the best college basketball conference in the country. Even though Oklahoma and Texas are leaving in favor of the SEC, the conference is getting even stronger with the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. Arizona is by far the best basketball brand being added to the Big 12, but there’s reason to believe the other members can eventually leave a footprint.
Arizona State has reached the NCAA Tournament three times under coach Bobby Hurley, and added some interesting pieces to the roster — headlined by five-star center and former Kentucky signee Jayden Quaintance. Colorado is fresh off an appearance in the NCAA…
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