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The Pac-12 has been dealing with some issues lately as they officially lost the Colorado Buffaloes to the Big 12. With the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans also gone beginning in 2024, there has been a lot of concern that this conference is going under.
Today, we rank the top five teams that are likely to be joining Colorado in a jump to the Big 12. Obviously, not all five are going to be leaving, but each program has a legitimate reason to be potentially in the cards of conference realignment.
#5. Stanford Cardinal
The prestige of the Stanford Cardinal can be appealing to the Big 12 as they are a highly academic university. They are not considered a highly-touted college football program so this would be for the name-value alone.
#4. Utah Utes
Back-to-back Pac-12 Conference Champions on the move? This seems likely as they seem to have outgrown the conference.
The top-tier brands have all been out so why would the Big 12 not want the top college football program as of late to join as well? This just makes sense unless the Utes have an underlying loyalty to the conference and want to stick it out.
#3. Oregon Ducks
The Oregon Ducks seem to be the biggest team left in the Pac-12 right now, making them the belle of the ball. Oregon has not been linked to leave the conference but if there is no media rights deal in sight, what makes them want to stay and go down with the ship?
#2. Arizona State Sun Devils
The Sun Devils leaving the Pac-12 and joining the Big 12 is a more realistic option than people believe.
They have been a successful program in their history so that will be something to help the prestige of the Big 12 even more. The distribution share seems to be more than enough to persuade them to leave and they are a hot team for any expansion.
#1. Arizona Wildcats
The top two spots on this list are interchangeable but Arizona moving to the Big 12 seems extremely likely.
The Wildcats have been linked to the conference and the Colorado Buffaloes would need to find a partner before joining otherwise the Big 12 is at an odd number of teams. The president of the university said they are waiting for a Pac-12 TV deal, but how long will that take and what will it look like?
