In 2022, when USC and UCLA were both admitted into the Big Ten for the 2024 season, the ramifications were still unknown. Now, the conference the teams came from, the Pac-12, officially sits at just two teams: Washington State and Oregon State.
A new look for the conference is on the horizon, with Gonzaga, San Diego State, Colorado State, Utah State, Fresno State and Boise State joining the conference in July 2026. Unlike the Big Ten, which saw the additions of not just USC and UCLA, but Oregon and Washington, the Pac-12 is building a strong regional conference in the wake of realignment.
Above all else, the conference looks fun. Six of the new-look conference’s eight teams made the NCAA Tournament in 2024, four making it to the second round and Gonzaga making it to the Sweet 16.
The two conferences the six teams are coming from are the Mountain West and West Coast Conferences. Gonzaga is the only team representing the WCC, but the other five teams that have announced they will be joining all hail from the Mountain West.
Utah State finished as regular season champions of the Mountain West, while Gonzaga finished second in the WCC, failing to win its conference tournament for only the second time since 2013. For the Mountain West, its history of champions is far more scattered, with San Diego State having the lead with three conference championships in the last decade.
In the WCC, Gonzaga’s only real threat keeping them from running away with the conference year after year was the 2024 WCC champions, Saint Mary’s. In the new Pac-12, fans will finally get a look at what Gonzaga looks like among teams that are closer to being considered peers.
From a recruiting standpoint, questions still lie. Regardless of if there are only two teams left from this past season’s Pac-12, the prestige may still lie in the conference’s history.
Funding in the conference as a whole and the inevitable assertion that this is still a power conference could allow the new Pac-12 to continue to recruit like the old Pac-12, meaning teams like Boise State and San Diego State can start to recruit from the mindset of a high-major program.
At the end of the day, though, this is a mid-major conference, largely due to the difference in how realignment has affected the Pac-12. The Big Ten and the Big 12 have brought in schools from high-major conferences or added a mid-major powerhouse like Houston from the AAC to an already powerful group of teams.
That’s not the case with the Pac-12. Washington State and Oregon State were never powerhouses among the conference’s elite, which was dominated by the newest members of the Big Ten throughout history. However, all that means is there will be more questions heading into the new 2024-25 season, which kicks off in just over a month on Nov. 4.
Additionally, what any impassioned college basketball fan will tell you is that the most fun is had in the mid-majors. Anything can happen, and more fun is had, knowing not every regular season win or loss is the difference between a five- or 12-seed in the NCAA tournament.
Inversely, the post season just means more. Conferences like the Mid-American Conference and the Ivy League typically only get one postseason bid, an automatic bid earned from a conference tournament championship. While the Pac-12 will almost certainly be a multiple-bid league, the excitement that is inherent to smaller conference tournaments remains.
So, while the Pac-12 isn’t a Power Six school any longer, maybe that’s something that will lead to more fun for college basketball fans overall.
Logan Adams is a junior studying journalism. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Logan know by tweeting him @LoganPAdams.
