No, the Big 12 is not going to absorb the final four Pac-12 schools: Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State.
Brett McMurphy of The Action Network let it be known that the Big 12 has not spoken with the remaining Pac-12 holdovers about possibly joining their recently expanded league.
The Big 12 went from 10 teams to 14 teams back in July. They will lose Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC on July 1 of next year, but will be gaining the Four Corner Universities out of the Pac-12 on the same date. While Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah have found a new home, Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State are the four teams left out of the latest wave of realignment.
Just look at McMurphy putting all of the bad reporting out there in its place with this tasty nugget.
For now, the best bet Cal and Stanford have is to link up with SMU and join the ACC. As far as what Oregon State and Washington State could do, they may go to the Mountain West and dominate there.
College football realignment: Big 12 not interested in Pac-12 holdovers
To me, the thing that irks me is Oregon State and Washington State really care about college football and major college athletics. They may have smaller budgets than others and do not have the robust history of other programs, but those schools and those fans do truly care, honestly. Cal and Stanford have not been willing to play the game since COVID happened and it has shown up embarrassingly.
I would venture to guess the Pac-12 holdovers will have options down the line, but they may not be as good as what they had, or could have had, in their dying conference of note. As long as the expanded College Football Playoff affords auto-bids to the six highest-ranked champions, then ascending teams like Oregon State are in a good spot, no matter what happens to the competition around them.
In the meantime, these four universities are just going to have to do their best of controlling what they can control. Odds are, Cal and Stanford will do one thing, while Oregon State and Washington State will do something else. If all four could go to the Mountain West, that might make for an interesting league. Rebrand it as the Pac-16 and let Mountain West management run the operation. How's that?!
For now, don't expect for the likes of Cal and Utah to keep playing conference games in the Big 12.
