Two Pac-12 programs oppose conference expansion

The college football world is expecting the Pac-12 to expand but not every member is on board

Since USC and UCLA announced their plans to leave the Pac-12, one of the most common questions is who the conference would add to replace them.

A question that has awkwardly been floating out there in space and been put on ice due to the fact that the conference has clearly been prioritizing securing a media rights deal first. Something that we learned over the past couple days at Pac-12 media day they do not have. 

However, even without an official deal or semblance of a deal to be presented to the public, the assumption around college football is that the conference still plans to at least two programs with San Diego State and SMU being the favorites. Despite what most people thought was a sure thing in expansion for the Pac-12, in a report by The Athletic, Stewart Mandel revealed that two of the remaining 10 programs are currently opposed to expanding past 10. Mandel also reported that one of the schools is believed to be Oregon. 

One reason SDSU has no clarity: Two league sources told The Athletic on Friday there’s not unanimity among the presidents to expand at all. It would take an 8-2 vote, and at least two schools — one of them assumed to be Oregon — don’t currently support it. The rationale being, they’d rather compete with fewer schools for the Pac-12’s berth in the expanded College Football Playoff, not to mention sharing CFP revenue with fewer mouths.

The Pac-12 deal is expected to be finished in the coming weeks, which means shortly after we will find out if the two programs change their minds.