Will AAC dissolve and push for merger with Pac-12? Taking a closer look at CFB insider's claims about expansion

The Pac-12 could be adding four schools from the American Athletic Conference (AAC), according to reports.

Ever since the Pac-12 saw eight of its 12 schools leave, the future of the conference has been up in the air. There were talks of Stanford and Cal exiting, with a potential merger with the Mountain West Conference (MWC) or another conference also on the cards.

Yet, according to CFB insider MHver3, the Pac-12 has a commitment from four AAC schools, which could lead to a merger between the two conferences.

"Hearing PAC has a commitment from 4 AAC schools to leave the conference and join theirs. This could possibly create leverage to get the AAC to vote to dissolve the conference and get the majority of the schools to merge with the PAC."

Which four schools agreed to leave the AAC to join the Pac-12 is uncertain. However, it makes sense for the two conferences to merge, as the Pac-12 desperately needs to add schools to remain a Power 5 conference.

The future of Pac-12 is unclear

The Pac-12 has been dealt a tough hand with the media rights deal expiring and USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten last year.

To make matters worse, the Pac-12 saw Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, and Washington leave for different conferences.

Since then, commissioner George Kliavkoff has been trying to add schools to the conference, which isn't surprising. Before the schools left, he had said he was focused on expansion.

“We are focused on concluding our media rights deal and securing our continued success and growth,” Kliavkoff said in a statement. “Immediately following the conclusion of our media rights deal, we will embrace expansion opportunities and bring new fans, markets, excitement and value to the Pac-12.”

Although the hope was to add teams to the Pac-12, Kliavkoff must now rebuild the conference.

AAC having meetings to discuss its future

The AAC has been one of the conferences linked to the Pac-12 for quite some time.

On paper, merging with them makes a lot of sense, and USF athletic director Michael Kelly revealed the conference had meetings about expansion.

“We’ve had a handful of meetings throughout the week,” Kelly said at USF’s kickoff luncheon. “Just our commissioner keeping us up to date with the best information he has and even evaluating if there’s something we’d want to do with the people who are now available to bring into our conference... All we can really do is stay in constant conversation with not only what’s happening now but what could happen.”

The AAC has yet to add any schools, but perhaps news of a merger or schools leaving will be announced soon.