In a matter of nine days, four Pac-12 teams have joined the Big 12 conference. Following Colorado's departure last week, Arizona State, Arizona and Utah have now all officially joined the conference following a Friday night meeting of the Big 12 administrators who unanimously voted to accept the schools as full members, effective Aug. 2, 2024.

"We are excited for this new chapter, a move that is necessary to remain competitive in top-tier Division 1 athletics," said ASU President Michael Crow. "We are joining a premier athletic conference and bringing with us programs on the rise, our rich traditions and history, and the metro Phoenix media market. We're in a good spot, and we are pleased to be with UArizona and Utah in the move."

This dramatic decision by the Sun Devils was following a laborious, if not unnecessary, process. On Tuesday of this week, the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) had an executive session with both Arizona State and Arizona concerning a possible move to the Big 12 conference. While the Sun Devils' in-state rival was already fully on board in leaving the Pac-12, Crow did exhibit some hesitancy at least during that session. Yet, less than 24 hours later did express his willingness to also leave the conference in which ASU resided since 1978.

Another ABOR session took place on Thursday night, and what should have been a proverbial rubber stamp of ABOR approving both schools joining the Big 12, and fulfilling their desire for both universities to remain in the same conference in the future, was met with resistance by Crow who was not ready at that time to commit to such a move. It was an inexplicable action that was merely just delaying the inevitable, since Crow and the rest of the Pac-12 presidents, for that matter, already knew that both Oregon and Washington were in advanced talks to join the Big Ten, a move that essentially and swiftly disbanded the Pac-12. Early on Friday afternoon, the Big Ten already announced the additions of both schools.

The Pac-12, in the last-ditch effort, did have the remaining nine schools meet Friday morning in hopes that they would sign a Grant of Rights document that would bind them to a new media rights deal to be effective on July 1st of 2024. The deal was going to be heavily streaming in nature with Apple TV as the main partner and was going to pay out approximately $22 million annually per team, yet certain subscription levels to that stream would have to be met in order to realize those financial figures. Conversely, the media deal with the Big 12 stands at approximately $31 million annually, assuming the latest additions to the league will each receive a full share.

Oregon and Washington came to that Friday morning Pac-12 meeting knowing that they were well on their way to joining the Big Ten, and there was literally nothing that could have been done to change their minds. Individuals familiar with the matter stated that Crow was comfortable with those two schools rather than himself being the one who, from an optics perspective, was responsible for disbanding the conference.

The latest departures of these five schools (Arizona State, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, and Washington) come three years after USC and UCLA decided to leave for the Big Ten. Unrecoverable mishaps by former Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, someone who Crow vigorously supported despite crucial mistakes that affected the overall financial health of the conference, created a landscape that was impossible for current Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff to remedy and avoid the implosion of the Pac-12.

ASU is expected to have a press conference discussing this decision during the weekend and no later than Monday.

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