Shortly after Oregon State and Washington State secured commitments from four Mountain West members last week to reinvent the Pac-12, OSU athletic director Scott Barnes said he envisioned the conference adding at least two more institutions “as quickly as possible.” Just five days later, longtime Portland-based columnist John Canzano is reporting that Memphis and Tulane “have emerged as the top targets of the Pac-12 as the conference prepares to take a second bite of the expansion apple.”
So here we go.
Needless to say, there are currently more questions than answers pertaining to this possible marriage — questions about everything from exactly how much it would cost the schools to leave the AAC to exactly when they could officially join the Pac-12 to exactly how much of a toll the expanded travel would take on the athletic departments and everybody who operates within them. Nothing is a done deal, nor should it be.
There’s a lot to sort out.
According to Canzano, Pac-12 leaders will meet later this week to discuss all options thoroughly; I’m certain Memphis and Tulane officials are doing the same. If folks on either side determine a move like this doesn’t make sense financially, perhaps it’s not a move worth making. But as long as it does make sense financially, and I’m inclined to believe it will for everybody involved, it’s clear to me that it’s time for Memphis and Tulane to become the newest members of the Pac-12, geography be damned.
I’ve thought a lot about this — especially from the Memphis perspective, mostly because the University of Memphis is my alma mater, and the Memphis area is where I still make my home. When the school was first identified as a possible Pac-12 target last week, I kept an open mind and explained to anybody who asked that there were clear reasons to go but also possible reasons to pass — the most notable one being that there’s a plausible scenario where the ACC loses…
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