As the calendar flips to July, the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 expand while the Pac-12 is officially down to two teams

The Pac-12 era is now over.

Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC are officially Big Ten teams as of Monday, while Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are heading to the Big 12. Cal and Stanford are now also somehow members of the ACC, and Oregon State and Washington State are the last two teams standing.

July 1 is yet another milestone in the massively shifting college sports landscape. We’ve all known for months that the Pac-12 as we know it was disintegrating. But there’s still something profoundly sad about that finally becoming a reality.

The league that billed itself the “Conference of Champions” was an incredibly fun league even if it was marred by dysfunction and a lack of College Football Playoff appearances. After Oregon made the inaugural four-team playoff, Washington was the only other program to make the CFP over the past decade. Overall, the Pac-12 appeared in the playoff just three times in 10 years.

We could always count on “Pac-12 After Dark” to produce magical and chaotic moments at the end of marathon college football Saturdays. Who can forget UCLA beating Washington State 67-63 in 2019 with 50 second-half points? The Bruins trailed by 32 at one point, yet won despite WSU QB Anthony Gordon’s nine TD passes because the Cougars turned the ball over six times.

Or what about in 2014, when Arizona State capped a big comeback with a Hail Mary from Mike Bercovici to Jaelen Strong that beat USC?

All 12 of the teams that called the old Pac-12 home for years will still be playing nightcaps on a regular basis in 2024 and beyond. But it’s just simply not going to feel the same when UCLA is hosting Minnesota and Rutgers is visiting USC.

We can blame greediness and capitalism in “amateur” athletics for the conference’s demise. As it became clear that the dozen schools weren’t going to get the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/as-the-calendar-flips-to-july-the-acc-big-ten-and-big-12-expand-while-the-pac-12-is-officially-down-to-two-teams-120007678.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-07-01 12:00:07

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