Thursday’s news that Oregon State and Washington State had successfully pulled off a hostile invasion of the Mountain West and lured Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State to reform the Pac-12 was somewhat unexpected, in terms of how relatively quickly it came together. It also puts the Mountain West in peril.
“You’ve gotta be excited, because the alternative is being one of those teams being left behind,” one Mountain West source told CBS Sports. “Whether it’s the perfect move for us or not, it doesn’t matter. The alternative is you’re the Summit League or the old WAC.”
Like that, the Pac-2 became a Pac-6. No matter the next size to come, branding wins out, so, yeah: It’s still going to call itself the Pac-12. And it won’t be the Summit League or the old WAC, that’s for sure.
This latest major shakeup to college athletics doubles as a rebirth for one of the most acclaimed leagues in college sports history. Oregon State and Wazzu were left for dead, but now, thanks to having hundreds of millions of dollars after winning in court after every other former Pac-12 school fled to the Big Ten, Big 12 or ACC, the victims have turned into the hunters. More schools will be joining those Pac-6 in the months ahead. Who, though?
Sources tell CBS Sports that a batch of programs in the American Athletic Conference — Memphis, North Texas, Rice, Tulane, UTSA, even South Florida — are under consideration for invitations. We’ll see how many receive the bids. Decisions based on football potential will be guiding the way, as usual. Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould and the six presidents of the schools in the rebranded Pac-12 are trying to refashion a century-old league with enough football bona fides to separate from the rest of the Group of Five conferences. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. I’m not sure.
But what I am sure of is, in this instance with this rising…
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