Return of the PAC

The Pac is back....well, kind of. The league that once looked doomed has been given a second chance at life. As it stands, the Pac-12 has only two current members: Washington State and Oregon State.

In order to survive on the football front, the schools reached a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West, to serve as their “conference” slate.

This partnership would lead to what could be the official revival of the Pac-12 conference. Two weeks ago, it was announced by the Pac-12 itself that four schools from the Mountain West conference had agreed to jump ship and join the two-team league.

The four that will make up the new backbone of the conference are Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Colorado State.

The new deal will bring the conference up to six members, but per NCAA rules, it would need to get to at least eight members to still be recognized as a “power conference”.

There has been plenty of momentum from this move however, that could end up pushing the new Pac-12 over the eight-team threshold.

One school rumored to have interest in joining is Gonzaga University, yes the powerhouse basketball school. While it had been reported that Gonzaga was officially joining, multiple reports have come out since then refuting those claims.

With most stating that while Gonzaga and the Pac-12 have not agreed on a deal officially, they are in deep discussions on a potential agreement.

An institution that has officially decided to join is the Utah State Aggies. The school announced on Tuesday night that it would officially join the Pac-12 and become the conference’s seventh member. This addition makes the revival of the Pac-12 all more likely, as it only needs one more member.

In its effort to gain members, the Pac-12 released offers to three American Athletic Conference schools: Tulane, USF, and Memphis, but they have all decided to remain with the AAC.

Two other schools from the Mountain West have also declined, pledging their allegiance to their home conference. These are UNLV and Air Force.

News for potential moves has slowed, but on the financial side, the Pac-12 has officially filed a lawsuit against the Mountain West. Remember the scheduling agreement made to keep the Pac-12 afloat? Well, with the addition of the new members, this leaves the conference with a hefty price tag.

For taking the five schools, the price tag for the Pac-12 is now a whopping $55 million.

These were pre-agreed to terms when the two conferences signed the deal for the scheduling agreement, but now the Pac-12 is alleging that these fees are predatory, and are taking advantage of the disparity of the Pac to keep itself alive.

Conference realignment has been an interesting and wild part of college football over the last few years, and this new saga leaves us with some of the best drama yet.

While the Pac-12 is still in search of its eighth school, it can be inferred that we will have Pac after dark back soon. Although a new, quirkier version.

Evan Pochas is a second-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email ejp5753@psu.edu.