Arizona safety Genesis Smith (12) celebrates with teammates after an interception against Oklahoma during the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023.
Eric Gay, Associated Press
The Pac-12 Conference — as presently constituted — will officially cease to exist in late June, with the conclusion of the Men’s College World Series.
For all intents and purposes, a conference that can trace its origins to a collaboration between four schools in 1915 will be no more, barring some unlikely maneuvering from Oregon State and Washington State in the next two years.
USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington will head to the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to the Big 12; and Cal and Stanford to the ACC, with OSU and WSU left to their own devices.
According to a report by Action Network’s Brett McMurphy, however, in some ways the Pac-12 won’t be completely gone. At least, not immediately.
Sources told McMurphy that for the next two college football seasons — 2024 and 2025 — Pac-12 schools “likely will still play in Pac-12-affiliated bowls … and not in bowl tie-ins with their new conferences.”
McMurphy noted that there are multiple reasons for this sort of agreement, foremost among them being that the Pac-12’s contract with affiliated bowls runs through 2025.
“Out of a series of not-great options, the most workable — short of blowing up the bowl system and the (35 nonplayoff) bowl contracts — is to have the former Pac-12 schools sent to Pac-12 bowls for two more years,” a source told McMurphy.
The Pac-12-affiliated bowl games going forward are the Alamo Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, Sun Bowl, Los Angeles Bowl and Independence Bowl (for 2024, before it turns into an ESPN event bowl in 2025).
The Rose Bowl is no longer affiliated with the Pac-12 due to the expansion of the College Football Playoff.
Per McMurphy, though the keeping of Pac-12 bowl ties-ins appears likely, there has been opposition to the idea. Much of it is centered on the Alamo, Holiday, Sun and Las Vegas bowls.
The Alamo Bowl pits a Pac-12 team against a Big 12 team, and sources told Action Network that the Alamo Bowl wants to be able to select former Big 12 teams Texas and Oklahoma to play for the next two years, despite those two schools moving to the SEC.
The Holiday and Sun bowls feature Pac-12 and ACC opponents, and “both bowls likely would rather not have new ACC members Cal or Stanford as its ‘Pac-12’ rep to play an ACC team,” McMurphy writes.
The Las Vegas Bowl, meanwhile, shifts in 2025 to pit a Pac-12 team against a Big Ten team, and McMurphy notes that there is going to be a similar concern with that bowl game, including Oregon, Washington, UCLA or USC to play against a Big Ten conference foe.
There was expected to be some realignment of bowl tie-ins this winter, following the conclusion of the 2023 college football season, McMurphy reported, but that didn’t happen and the future of the bowl season — what it will look like — remains a question, especially with the uncertain expansion of the CFP.
The expectation right now, though, is that former Pac-12 schools will continue to represent the Pac-12 in some way for the next two years come the postseason.