Mulling Washington's future as Colorado leaves the Pac-12
Mulling Washington's future as Colorado leaves the Pac-12
Thoughts on where the Huskies go from here.
By a unanimous vote, Colorado’s Board of Regents on Thursday approved the school’s move to the Big 12, effective in the 2024-25 academic year.
The Pac-12, still reeling from the losses of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, now finds itself with just nine member schools as it continues to negotiate its next media-rights contract. Pac-12 expansion, in some form, has gone from mere possibility to an absolute necessity … assuming commissioner George Kliavkoff can deliver a TV deal the nine remaining schools deem worthy.
What does this mean for Washington? The obvious answer is … nobody knows. Not yet, anyway. But I did want to work through some thoughts as to what Colorado’s departure might mean for the Huskies, and what UW might prioritize in the coming days.
At first blush, Washington and Oregon would seem to possess some degree of leverage that their remaining conference counterparts do not. They are the two largest brands, and presumably the two most valuable television properties. Yet in an almost comically perfect display of how wacky this sport can be, the departure of the Pac-12’s reigning last-place team may have just thrust the Huskies into something of a no-man’s land, at least for now, with regard to their post-2023 affiliation.