"It's a new era right now"- CFB analyst details what went wrong for the Pac-12 in the recent conference realignment saga

The Pac-12 is in the midst of a major collapse as conference realignment has led to a mass exodus.

Eight of the 12 schools have announced that they will leave the conference ahead of the 2024 season. The California Bears, Oregon State Beavers, Stanford Cardinal and Washington State Cougars are the only schools that remain in the Pac-12 as things stand.

Former Cardinal coach David Shaw, who led the program from 2011 through 2022 and is the all-time wins leader, recently appeared on "The Rich Eisen Show," where he discussed the breakdown of the conference:

"It's a new era right now, and if you don't play by the rules that everybody else plays by and you sit and wait, you are left out, and that's where the conference is and that's where my school is right now. Waiting for something else to happen that hopefully can salvage something."

Shaw added that he is optimistic that things can change down the line:

"I can't help but think of the legacy of the conference. I have a little bit of pie in the sky that, once all this stuff settles and seven, eight years from now when all these deals are about to be re-signed again, that maybe somehow we can form this conference back again, but for right now it's tough times out here on the West Coast."

Check out David Shaw's comments on the Pac-12 below (starting at the 0:59 mark).

While Shaw may remain optimistic about the conference's programs re-joining forces down the line, the future of the Pac-12 is as bleak as it gets.

The four remaining schools have all began to explore options regarding potentially departing. It remains to be seen if conference officials can expand, however, if they are unable to do so, this could be the final season of Pac-12 football altogether.

David Shaw weighs in on warning signs of Pac-12 collapse

During his appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show," David Shaw weighed in on the collapse of the Pac-12. When asked about warning signs during the 2022 season, his final year leading the Stanford Cardinal, Shaw said:

"More than warning signs, it felt like there were bombs going off around us. We all knew that the first contract as the Pac-12 was right around my first year. The big contract, and we didn't get a lot of that money that was promised. The DirecTV deal never came through. A lot of things didn't happen. so that first deal was just not what we hoped it to be."

Check out David Shaw's comments on the Pac-12 collapse below (starting at the 1:58 mark).

Shaw added that while other conferences received better deals, the Pac-12 remained hopeful that their next deal would be more lucrative. Such a deal never manifested, however, and eight of the 12 schools will leave for greener pastures following the 2023 season.