On August 4, 2023, the Pac-12 as everyone knew it ceased to exist when Washington and Oregon announced they were joining the Big Ten, followed immediately by Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah bolting for the Big 12. Soon after, Cal and Stanford negotiated their way into the ACC, leaving just Washington State and Oregon State without a home — and trying to chart a course toward future viability and sustainability.

After winning a major court battle that gave them control of the conference’s remaining assets, WSU and OSU struck scheduling agreements with the Mountain West and West Coast conferences to give their teams competitive homes while taking advantage of the NCAA’s two-year grace period for rebuilding conferences.

WSU and OSU were, in fact, clear from the outset that they intended to use the conference assets to rebuild the Pac-12. However, things got real, real quiet for quite some time.

That all changed this fall.

Timeline of events

• September 12: Pac-12 adds four MWC schools

• September 23: AAC schools stay, Gonzaga reportedly …

• September 24: Pac-12 sues MWC over ‘poaching penal …

• September 25: UNLV sticks with MWC

• October 1: Gonzaga officially joins the Pac-12

September 12: Pac-12 adds four MWC schools

More than a year after the disintegration of the Pac-12 as we knew it, Washington State and Oregon State finally made their first move toward securing their long-term¹ futures when they surprised everyone by announcing that Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, and Colorado State would be leaving the Mountain West Conference to form the core of a rebuilt Pac-12.

The move took virtually everyone by surprise; there were no reports that this was imminent or that it was even on the horizon. All anyone knew was that talks between WSU/OSU and the MWC to continue the football scheduling agreement for another year had broken down, supposedly over money — reports suggested the MWC had asked for double the $15 million the “Pac-12” paid for the first year of the agreement.

In the end, the Pac-12 had added the top football- and basketball-playing schools the MWC had to offer, creating a core with which it would use to try and lure other schools to the conference. The expansion still left them shy of the eight teams required to officially become an NCAA-recognized conference once again, and speculation as to who else they might add to their ranks.

The first week was pretty quiet, with the assumption being that the six schools were strategizing and feeling out potential members through back channels. By Friday, September 20, media reports indicated that AAC members Memphis and Tulane were the new Pac-12’s top targets — something we all pretty much were already assuming — and that there should be a decision by the following Monday.

September 23: AAC schools stay, Gonzaga reportedly joining(?), Utah State joins

There was, indeed, a decision: Memphis and Tulane (and also USF and UTSA, who also appear to have been invited?) publicly affirmed their commitment to the AAC.

And then all hell broke loose.

Everyone’s attention to immediately turn back toward the Mountain West — specifically UNLV and Utah State. But within 30 minutes of the AAC announcement, a bombshell report:

As other reporters worked to confirm McMurphy’s report, one by one, they all said the same thing over the next half hour: There is no agreement and Gonzaga is not yet going anywhere. False alarm. (McMurphy, meanwhile, stood by his report — which turned out to be a pretty good strategy!)

Attention once again turned back to the MWC. Everyone knew the Pac-12 still needed two more teams to make a real conference, and as the day wore on — and we all waited and waited for some firm news — it became clear that Mountain West commish Gloria Nevarez intended to block the Pac-12 from further raiding her conference by using the $110 million+ she anticipated getting from the Pac-12 (more on that in a second) to incentivize the remaining eight teams to stay together. That’s a pretty good carrot, and sure enough, by late afternoon, reports were trickling out about each school planning to sign on to a new grant of rights agreement.

But then … a lifeline? Utah State is wavering? UTAH STATE IS GOING TO JOIN! That brought the Pac-12 up to seven teams, and dropped the MWC to six. Uh oh, Mountain West …

This was all in the span of six hours on Monday! What would Tuesday bring?

September 24: Pac-12 sues MWC over ‘poaching penalty’

Oh, just this:

When WSU and OSU entered into a football scheduling agreement with the MWC last year — for which they paid $15 million to each add six games against MWC teams — the contract included a “poaching penalty” that included monetary damages if any of their members joined the Pac-12. The Pac-12 is now alleging that the agreement violates antitrust laws. Internet lawyers are split on the issue after reading the complaint, but a good number of them believe the lawsuit does, in fact, have merit.

But that was … kind of it for Tuesday. Eerily quiet. Same for most of Wednesday. What is UNLV thinking? What’s taking so long?

September 25: UNLV sticks with MWC

Finally, Wednesday night — some news … and not the good kind for the Pac-12: Rather than make the leap, UNLV agreed to accept more than $20 million in bribes a one-time “retention bonus” from the MWC in exchange for staying. The money would come from the exit fees paid by five departing members, which totaled around $85 million. Air Force, which had a dalliance with the AAC, would get the same amount. The remaining full members — Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, and Wyoming — would each get less than $10 million for sticking around.

Those schools all put ink to paper on Thursday, leaving the Pac-12 with the original six + Utah State.

Where to next? Perhaps back to the AAC. Memphis athletics director Ed Scott gave a press conference Thursday afternoon that most definitely did nothing to kill the idea that the Tigers would still be open to talking to the Pac-12. This sounds like a man who’s asking for a reason to leave the AAC:

“Where does this go?," he said. "If y’all haven’t seen the latest reports of what’s going on with the Mountain West and the Pac-6, -7 right now, this is a fluid situation. Listen, they all have my phone number. So if they call, I'm answering. I've never not answered a call when anyone from another school or another conference has called. If they call, I'm going to listen. That's my job."

October 1: Gonzaga officially joins the Pac-12

As it turned out, an AAC school was not the next domino — that wound up being Gonzaga, proving McMurphy correct after all!

The Bulldogs are reportedly going to receive something approximating a full media share, despite not playing football. That brought the conference up to eight schools; however, one more football-playing school is still necessary.

There was a fair amount of smoke around the AAC schools following the announcement of Gonzaga — particularly with regards to Memphis — but things have gotten pretty quiet since then as various reports have suggested that the Pac-12 is talking with potential media partners.

This story will be updated as the situation develops.

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1  At least as “long term” as things can be in this environment.