CardinalSportsReport – Big XII possible for Stanford, Cal, Washington State, and Oregon State?

With the Pac-12 for all intents and purposes playing its final season of existence, Stanford, Cal, Washington State, and Oregon State are all looking for a new home. The ACC has reportedly been moving towards adding Stanford and Cal along with SMU, but there is new reporting that indicates things might take yet another turn:

Connor Letourneau and Michael Silver of The San Francisco Chronicle are now reporting that Stanford and Cal are exploring the possibility of joining the Big XII along with Oregon State and Washington State. In essence, the remaining four Pac-12 schools without a home could end up in the Big XII, making it a 20 team coast-to-coast conference.

It’s important to underscore that Stanford and Cal would still prefer the ACC and that they hope it comes to fruition in the next couple of days. But, if the ACC continues to stall and can’t get their house in order to make the move, Silver and Letourneau report that talks with the Big XII will intensify between Stanford and Cal with Oregon State and Washington State expected to come along with them.

All of this is still very fluid. Silver reported earlier that Stanford and Cal along with SMU to the ACC was heating up and that all things were pointing in that direction. So, it’s really anyone’s guess of as to how things will shake out.

I will say this though: Just from a logistical and geographical standpoint, the Big XII makes a lot more sense for Stanford and Cal. Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Arizona State are already there along with BYU. That geography and travel works out really well. Along with Oregon State and Washington State, Stanford and Cal could form a four-team pod in the Pacific time zone, giving the Big XII teams in all four major time zones of the United States. That would be really cool for them.

The other piece of this is I’ve always believed the Big XII would take Stanford and Cal if they got the chance. If they took Colorado and BYU, there’s no reason they wouldn’t take Stanford and Cal. Stanford in particular is a far better athletic program than those two schools with the academic prestige and financial weight of Harvard. What’s not to like? And then Cal is an Ivy League level school with tons of potential if they get the right leadership.

As an extension of that, I think if the Big XII adds Stanford and Cal, it makes sense for them to add Washington State and Oregon State as well. For all the talk of Washington State and Oregon State not being power five level, their endowments say otherwise and they also have been pretty solid in football as of late. I think if the Big XII does add all four schools, they would strengthen their league significantly and form a really solid league that could certainly rival the ACC and nip at the heels of the Big Ten.

Just from a financial standpoint, word is the ACC would offer Stanford and Cal $8M-$10M per year and the league would gain $72M in total revenue per year by adding Stanford, Cal, and SMU. So in that sense, there’s really no reason for the ACC to not make this move. At the same time, the Big XII likely would offer more money to Stanford and Cal while of course offering Washington State and Oregon State more money than whatever they’d get from the AAC or Mountain West.

Now all of this being said, Brett McMurphy of Action Network has since reported that the Big XII has not had conversations with any of the four schools and has no intention in any form of engagement: “Despite various reports to the contrary, Big 12 has not had conversations w/any of the Pac-4 schools & has no intention in engaging with those schools, multiple Big 12 sources told @ActionnetworkHQ”.

With all these reports flying around, it’s hard to know who has a bite on what’s actually going on. If I had to guess, I would lean towards the truth being somewhere in the middle. It’s possible that so long as the ACC remains an option for Stanford and Cal, the Big XII won’t engage in talks with them or keep an arm’s length away. But if the ACC talks fall apart, that could of course change things. So I guess for now, that leaves us in a wait and see mode.

One other piece I would like to quickly bring up is from what I’ve learned, it sounds like Arizona State and Utah would likely be in favor of Stanford and Cal joining them in the Big XII. So there’s also the possibility of those schools working behind the scenes to make something happen on that front. Lots of variables and moving parts and pieces. These things are always fluid.

To wrap this madness all up, it does feel like the end is slowly but surely coming to this saga. Vibes I’ve gotten from Stanford have indicated that they feel things are moving in a positive direction and that they’ll have a resolution to all of this in the near future. While they don’t yet have a home, it does seem like things are indeed going in such a direction. The ACC is still a possibility and if they somehow don’t come up with a deal, despite the conflicting reports, I wouldn’t rule out the Big XII coming to the rescue. Either outcome would put Stanford in a power-five conference and at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.

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