Pac-12 Expansion: Why Pac-16 Would Be Bad for College Football

With the Big 12 hanging on by a thread, the Oklahoma Sooners appear to be the only team capable of saving the conference. That does not appear likely to happen as Oklahoma has been pursuing a move to join the Pac-12, something it believes will benefit its school long term both athletically and academically. Even with Baylor trying to rally the rest of the Big 12, it seems as if it is a little too late.

It’s becoming inevitable that college football will see its first ever super-conference come the start of the 2012 season.

The four teams continuing to be rumored to join the Pac-12 are Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

As every day brings us closer to this new super-conference it also brings us closer to altering the landscape of college football forever. What will this mean for college football? One thing that’s for sure is that college football will be different and, as intriguing as that may sound, it ultimately will hurt college football and everything it should stand for.

Loss of Rivalries, Tradition

I may be old-fashioned, but college football should be all about great traditions and rivalries. It’s hard to imagine there not being a Red River Rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma, and what if Arizona and UCLA get put in separate divisions and they don’t play each other in basketball?

The Pac-16 expansion will cause other conferences like the SEC and Big 10 to become super-conferences as well, potentially ending great rivalries like Ohio State and Michigan should they be in different divisions.

Fans wait all year to see their team play its rival foe, and to take that away from them would just be downright wrong.

Not Geographically, Economically Smart

The distances between both the Pac-12 and Big 12 are just simply too far apart. Colorado is one thing, but for teams having to go from Norman, Okla. to Pullman, Washington or Lubbock, Texas to Seattle is just too big of a road trip. It would cost schools extra money to have to travel that far.

The worse part of the huge distances between schools is what it would do to the fans who couldn’t afford to road trip to see their favorite teams play. A Texas-USC matchup would be very exciting, but a die-hard fan who wants to attend every single one of their team’s games would have a difficult time accomplishing that feat.

The Expansion Hurts Up-and-Coming Programs

In college sports it can take years and even decades for a school to establish itself.

Take the Arizona Wildcats, for example. A team that has always been known for basketball is now starting to establish itself as a good football program. After almost a 10-year drought from attending a bowl game, the Wildcats have now appeared in three straight.

For teams finally starting to find their identity, adding programs like Oklahoma and Texas will only push them back further. Teams like Washington, Arizona and Arizona State cannot compete with programs like Oklahoma and Texas for recruits.

Not as Much Money for Teams as One May Think

Yes, the Pac-12 just signed a lucrative deal with ESPN and FOX, but you have to remember all the money made will now be distributed amongst 16 teams. That’s a lot of teams.

Now, if Texas and the Longhorn Network can work something out with the Pac-12 Network, that would be a whole different ball game.

Non-Conference Games

If the Pac-12 expanded into the Pac-16, their schedules would be as followed:

Two divisions of eight teams

Seven divisional games

Two non-divisional games

Three non-conference games

With a schedule layout like this, each team would already have a significant amount of competition in conference that they would most likely try for an easy non-conference schedule.

A Pac-16 team could easily take away from a lot of weekly excitement between non-conference teams. Who knows if we would have even been able to see LSU versus Oregon last Saturday night?

Every week there is always one amazing non-conference game to watch.

Already Enough Good Competition

I’m not going to lie and say if the Pac-16 expansion actually goes through it would not be the most dominant conference, for now. However, I don’t think people realize how good the Pac-12 and Big 12 still are.

Between both conferences, they have eight teams ranked in the top 25—not to mention five teams in the top 15. Each conference already has three terrific programs with up-and-coming ones as well.

Stirs Up More BCS Controversy

As the Pac-16 expansion seems more likely every day, it will ultimately be a domino effect for the other major conferences. If the Pac-16 expansion happens, there is no way that conferences like the SEC and Big Ten are going to sit back and just watch this unfold.

As other conferences become super-conferences it will bring up questions as to what will happen with BCS bids. Would these super-conferences be allowed two teams, or would we go back to discussing setting up a playoff system?

Either way, it will continue to stir up arguments and controversy.

What Happens to the Rest?

Let’s say this expansion happens and the Big 12 loses Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Texas and Tech, it would be left with five teams. A lot of people are speculating that Missouri will join either the Big Ten or SEC. As much as the Kansas football team is in disarray, the basketball team is just too dominant to not belong in one of the super-conferences.

Kansas and Kansas State could end up joining the Big East, but for teams like Baylor and Iowa State it can mean a whole lot of uncertainty.