What happened to the Pac-12? Explaining the fall and rebuild for former Power Five league

The Power Five turned into the Power Four in just a few weeks during the offseason.

The Pac-12 essentially disbanded in 2024 as all its members except for Oregon State and Washington State left for other conferences amid a fallout. The conference has attempted to rebuild, but it has yet to be seen if it'll become a power league once again.

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Former Pac-12 teams have seen lots of success in 2024, from Oregon going undefeated and securing the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff, to Arizona State winning the Big 12 and earning the CFP No. 4 seed in its first season in the conference.

The Pac-12 has since added Utah State, San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State and Fresno State starting in 2026, with a basketball-only addition in Gonzaga. The conference needs one more program to reach eight in football, which is the minimum to be a recognized league in FBS.

When Oregon and Ohio State face off in the Rose Bowl in the quarterfinals of the CFP on Wednesday, it'll for the first time be between two Big Ten programs, although the game no longer adheres to the old Pac-12 vs. Big Ten format due to the 12-team expansion for the playoff.

Here's what happened to the Pac-12, and how the conference lost nearly all its teams:

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What happened to the Pac-12?

The Pac-12's downfall stems from the conference's inability to land a media rights deal that competed against the Big Ten and the SEC's, as Pac-12 schools would've received less money from the conference compared to other top conferences nationally.

Four of the conference's most successful schools in athletics – Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC – left for the Big Ten, while Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah went to the Big 12, who secured a better media rights deal than the Pac-12 did.

The dominos started to fall after UCLA and USC committed to the Big Ten, with Oregon and Washington later following suit. Those move put in motion Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado's move, with Stanford and Cal later leaving for the ACC with the conference falling under eight teams.

John Canzano reported ESPN came to the Pac-12 with a media rights deal that would've paid each school around $30 million in 2022, before conference commissioner George Kliavkoff countered with a $50 million per school deal.

ESPN declined, which opened the door for the Big 12 to sign a deal with Fox and ESPN that paid each school $31.7 million. Once that deal was signed, Kliavkoff and the Pac-12 had to pivot to other media rights opportunities, at one point being offered $23 million per school by Apple, which would've required a leap of faith for the remaining schools, according to The Athletic. The payout would've raised to $31.7 million per school if the conference led to at least 1.7 million subscribers to Apple TV.

The Athletic also reported that if the conference led to five million new subscribers for Apple TV, the per-team payout would raise to $50 million, which would make the conference much closer to the SEC and the Big Ten's over $70 million media rights deals.

The Pac-12 declining the deal with ESPN allowed for the Big 12 to swoop in and jump the Pac-12 in the pecking order, as the Big 12's media rights deal was set to expire after the 2024-25, which was after the Pac-12's old deal was up.

The Big 12 also showed signs of stability, as the conference added Houston, BYU, Cincinnati and UCF after losing powerhouse programs Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC.

Pac-12 history

The Pac-12, originally called the Pacific Coast Conference, has held a number of names over the years before landing on Pac-12 in 2011 following the additions of Utah and Colorado.

The original conference members were Cal, Washington, Oregon and Oregon State, before expanding with Stanford, Washington State, UCLA and USC in the next few years. Idaho and Montana were also members, but left the conference in the 1950s.

The league's downfall is interesting, given the conference had a number of powerhouse programs and nearly added Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Colorado during the 2010 offseason.

Those additions would've likely resulted in the end of the Big 12, a conference that ultimately jumped the Pac-12 in the media rights negotiation in today's current climate.

What schools are in the Pac-12?

The only current schools in the Pac-12 are Washington State and Oregon State, with San Diego State, Boise State, Utah State, Colorado State and Fresno State all accepting formal invitations to the conference in 2024.

Gonzaga will also join the conference, but as a basketball-only member. The new schools will join for the 2026-27 season and will need one more member to reach the eight-team threshold to be recognized as an FBS conference.

For the 2025 college football season, Washington State and Oregon State will operate with an independent schedule after playing majority Mountain West teams in 2024 as the Pac-12 was in agreement with the conference.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What happened to the Pac-12? Explaining the fall and rebuild of league