Tulane Conference Rival’s Coach Confirms Pac-12 Interest in Expansion
It isn't a secret that the Pac-12 conference is looking for at least two new members to go along with the four schools it invited last week.
But, up until now, few schools on the rumored “interested” list have come out and said that they're talking to the Pac-12.
UTSA football coach Jeff Traylor has no such reservations. During his coach’s show on Wednesday in San Antonio, h was asked about the Pac-12's expansion and how it might impact the Roadrunners.
He didn’t mince words.
"That is a real conversation that's happening as we speak,” he said.
It would appear UTSA is among the list of schools the conference is considering inviting. Tulane and Memphis are on that list, too, based on multiple reports in the past 10 days.
Here are #UTSA HC Jeff Traylor's comments tonight on his radio show regarding potential interest from the resurrected PAC-12.
— Nate Ryan (@nateryansports) September 19, 2024
"That is a real conversation that's happening as we speak..."
Reminder that at UTSA, football is the front porch of the university. pic.twitter.com/VchKJ8XaPC
The Pac-12 is sorting through its next phase of expansion. The conference doesn't have to make decisions right away, but it does need at least eight schools by the start of the 2026-27 athletic year to remain a conference.
After the league lost 10 members to various conferences last year, the NCAA gave the Pac-12 a two-year grace period to remain a conference while it sorted out its future.
Traylor put his school's decision in stark terms. For him, it could be all about the financial terms. In other words, could the Roadrunners get more money out of the Pac-12 than their current affiliation with the American Athletic Conference? Traylor says he’s loyal to the AAC, but that loyalty is, well, flexible based on whether an affiliation with the Pac-12 could accelerate his program’s development.
“We're a program that's only been playing ball for 13 years,” he said. “Most of our limitations are strictly just that. We have a booster base that's very loyal. They help us, there’s just not a lot of us, because we haven't been around very long. So it's the same people always having to do the most. If you have the opportunity to expediate the growth of a 13-year program, you've got to listen to it."
UTSA began its football program as a Division I independent in 2011 before joining the WAC in 2012 and then moving to Conference USA in 2013. While the Roadrunners just joined the American in 2023, Tulane has been a member of the league since 2014.
The Green Wave is a more established football program, with roots going all the way back to the SEC nearly 100 years ago. Still, the Green Wave is reportedly preparing itself for any option.
Matt Brown at Extra Points, a newsletter devoted to the business of college sports, wrote that Tulane was one of three American schools he was aware of that had hired a consulting company or a third-party firm to help prepare them for potential realignment in the Pac-12 or other conferences.
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