What they’d get each year in a mid-major would be a fraction of that, which begs the question: how would each school’s athletics departments downsize accordingly? It wouldn’t be pretty, even if it may be a better financial fit in a future where the budgets of bigger schools only get exponentially bigger (hello, massive forthcoming TV deals). These schools have gotten used to operating with a conference distribution that rang in at $37 million apiece for Pac-12 members last year. That leads me to point two: moving from a Power 5 conference, even if it’s the Pac-12, to a mid-major would mean taking a major hit in conference distributions. That gap is big enough to drive speculation that a mid-major conference would make more sense as a future home for either school. (Shameless plug for Sportico’s Intercollegiate Financial database, which has revenue information for all public DI schools.)

Washington State’s revenues rang in at $85,028,825-both about $10 million behind the almost $95 million Colorado made, and the Buffaloes reported the third lowest revenue in the Power Five! Across those five conferences, schools reported an average operating revenue of more than $144 million last year. Oregon State brought in just $83,480,015 in revenue in the most recent fiscal year. For the 2022 fiscal year, the two athletic departments operated with the smallest budgets in all of the Power Five. There’s a reason Oregon State and Washington State have been left behind in this new Power Four landscape. Morale was down among Pac-12 athletic directors, who felt Scott was disconnected from campus realities, spending most of his time at the conference’s headquarters in downtown San. (Should we start calling it the Pac-2?) But here’s the thing: these decisions ultimately come down to football and money, which are often one in the same in top-tier college athletics. If they also jump off the sinking Pac-12 ship, that leaves Oregon State and Washington State in the Pac-12. Now the conference is juggling the possibility of expanding literally from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific (and people are worried about the logistics of the Big Ten’s footprint?!) while also trying to keep fading powerhouse Florida State put … which seems increasingly unlikely, at least long-term.īack to the point. Louisville is currently the ACC’s westernmost member. I have to be honest, of all the wild moves we’ve already seen, that would take the cake.

Pac 12 conference realignment