Report: Mountain West Receptive to Potential Pac-12 Merger After Exodus

With the Pac-12 getting essentially dismantled with the departures Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Oregon and Washington all within the same day, the conference is now looking for alternatives on how to keep the league going.

While most of the options are limited, it seems like a merger with the Mountain West is a possible outcome and the MWC has been receptive to the idea, according to Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger.

Cal, Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State are the last teams remaining in what was once the Pac-12.

If the merger does end up happening with the two leagues as is, it'd become the Pac-15 as the MWC currently has 11 programs in its ranks. And while it may not have the biggest brand names there are several quality programs in the conference such as Boise State, Colorado State, UNLV, San Diego State and University of Wyoming.

But if it wants to ensure its own survival, the Pac-12 can't be too picky about how they are going to get the league back together after this mass exodus.

While it's been known for a while that both UCLA and USC would be headed to the Big 10 in 2024, the real avalanche began July 27 when Colorado decided to head back to the Big 12, where it was once an original member of the conference.

Oregon and Washington then followed suit Friday, joining USC and UCLA in the midwest by moving to the Big 10, which is set to become the largest conference in the country when all the shuffling is done.

Then, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah dealt the final blow by also making a switch to the Big 12.

The chain reaction of the past few weeks seemed to be sparked by the Pac-12's inability to lock down a good media rights deal. The conference's current deal is set to expire following the 2023-24 season.

And although Commissioner George Kliavkoff showed the school's chancellors and presidents the potential deals Tuesday—with Apple reportedly being the leaders—no agreement was ultimately reached.

The money of Apple's deal, which is reportedly "relatively low" to start before incrementing steadily over the course of the contract, was not enough to convince the programs to stay even though the Big 10 movers are only going to receive a partial share of the conference's current $7 billion media rights deal.