ASU appears closer than ever to leaving the Pac-12 and joining the Big XII

The Pac-12's meeting of its remaining nine university leaders that took place on Tuesday, August 1st, presented the proposed media deal for the conference. The low financial expectations of that agreement were sadly confirmed at that time, the same expectations that forced the University of Colorado's decision last week to leave for the Big 12 conference. Any voices who claimed that action in Boulder to be one of haste have undoubtedly been muted this week and for a good reason.

As we learned throughout Wednesday from individuals with knowledge of the situation, three of the Buffs' old Pac-12 South foes are poised to follow suit and are planning, as of July of 2024 to make the Big 12 their destination as well. Arizona State, the University of Arizona, and the University of Utah are resolute in their decision to leave the Pac-12, and the Big 12 is expected to vote on those school additions in the next 48 hours.

It's no secret that out of the three schools, Arizona has been the most receptive to this relocation. That sentiment was clearly conveyed in a closed executive session of the Arizona Board of Regents (BOR) that took place hours after the aforementioned Pac-12 meeting, and truthfully even before yesterday, Arizona and its President Robert Robbins were actively exploring the opportunity of switching conferences.

ASU University President Dr. Michael Crow was undoubtedly more passive on this front and was inexplicably consistent in supporting the Pac-12 leadership even when it wasn't merited under an underperforming former commissioner Larry Scott and current commissioner George Kliavkoff who wasn't able to secure a lucrative media deal that promoted Colorado to bolt. Months into Kliavkoff's tenure, he saw both USC and UCLA leave for the Big Ten, and while that significant loss was more the doing of the previous regime, it was ultimately a black eye that was impossible to remedy, let alone proved to be an ominous sign for the rest of the Pac-12 schools.

In comparison, ten months ago, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark secured a media rights deal with FOX and ESPN that will pay north of $30 Million annually for each member, which is reportedly at least (and this is a best-case scenario) $10 Million more than the Pac-12 agreement. Furthermore, the Pac-12 media rights deal is largely regulated to Apple TV, much to the chagrin of its member schools, who preferred the same linear media partners as the Big 12 and the rest of the Power Five conferences. As much as Crow wanted to preserve the unity of the Pac-12 conference, the adverse financial impact could not be ignored, and yesterday when the details of an unfavorable Pac-12 media rights deal could not be overlooked, he reversed his course of thinking.

The BOR has been adamant about wanting both ASU and Arizona to remain in the same conference, and once it heard from both schools about the literal price to be paid for remaining in the Pac-12, along with Arizona's expressed strong desire to leave the Pac-12, any arguments that Crow and ASU could make against leaving the conference became exceedingly more difficult to make. Those two entities prevented Arizona State from being left standing in this crucial game of musical chairs.

Decades ago, 1958 to be exact, the University of Arizona and its supporters opposed Prop 200, which would rename then-Arizona State College to Arizona State University. The passing of that resolution out the Tempe campus on the same footing as the one in Tucson.

Ironically during these recent days, ASU's archrival is responsible for keeping Arizona State in the same league which they belong to, pun intended.

Some will say that it's unfortunate that Arizona and, later on, the BOR are the ones that had to convince Crow to finally come to terms with the reality that the Pac-12 is a conference without a future and certainly not a league that Crow should have blindly defended without any merit to that line of thinking.

Nonetheless, Crow's new line of thinking has saved ASU from being part of a conference that, in less than 12 months, will become anything but a member of the Power Five.

Crisis averted.

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