Pac-12 Says Its Exploring Expansion Options After USC, UCLA Depart for for Big Ten

The Pac-12 released a statement Friday after news of UCLA and USC's impending departures to the Big Ten in 2014 became official.

"The Pac-12 Board of Directors met this morning and authorized the Conference to explore all expansion options," the statement read, per The Athletic's Matt Fortuna.

"The 10 university presidents and chancellors remain committed to a shared mission of academic and athletic excellence on behalf of our student-athletes."

Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford, Cal, Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Oregon State are the remaining 10 schools.

However, a source told Brett McMurphy of The Action Network that the Big 12 could look to add Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado to its conference, which is losing Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC but adding BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.

College football is clearly moving toward a superconference era. The SEC will end up with a minimum of 16 teams, and the same goes for the Big Ten. The question now is whether the rich get richer and add even more schools.

Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic spoke with a source who believed that further expansion is inevitable.

That leaves conferences who lost teams scrambling for new members. The Big 12 has gone out and found new schools, but now the Pac 12 is forced to do the same as college football's never-ending conference carousel continues.