The Pac-12 conference may have departed, but its presence will still be felt during the bowl season. As reported by Brett McMurphy of Action Network, the 10 schools that have recently left the Pac-12 will continue to participate in Pac-12 affiliated bowl games, rather than the bowl tie-ins of their new conference.
The contracts between the conferences and the bowls will remain in effect until the 2025 season. However, with only Oregon State and Washington State remaining as Pac-12 schools in 2024, it becomes impossible to fulfill the Pac-12’s six bowl affiliations without the participation of the former schools.
The year 2023 witnessed the near-complete dismantling of the Pac-12 due to conference realignment. USC and UCLA made the decision to join the Big Ten, followed closely by Oregon and Washington. Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and Colorado all departed for the Big 12, while Stanford and Cal left for the ACC.
At present, the most feasible solution would be to have the 10 schools that have left fill the remaining spots. An anonymous source informed Action Network that, among the various options available, this is the most practical one, short of completely revamping the bowl system and the existing bowl contracts.
However, not all stakeholders are enthusiastic about this idea. The inclusion of multiple conferences in the bowl selection process would likely mean that the selection cannot be determined solely by conference record, as is usually the case. One potential alternative is to allow the bowls to hand-pick their Pac-12 representative, which could result in a 7-5 team being chosen over a 10-2 team. Nevertheless, the current bowl contracts with conferences prohibit teams from bypassing other teams with at least two fewer wins.
The Pac-12’s current bowl affiliations for the next two years include the Alamo, Holiday, Las Vegas, Sun, and Los Angeles bowls, with the addition of the Independence Bowl in 2024 and an ESPN-affiliated bowl in 2025.
Most of these bowls traditionally feature teams from Power Five conferences, some of which have recently added former Pac-12 teams. This adds another layer of complexity to the bowl planning process. For instance, the Holiday and Sun Bowls usually pit teams from the ACC against the Pac-12. In light of this, the planners of these bowls would likely prefer not to have Cal or Stanford as the Pac-12 representative. Additionally, the 2025 Las Vegas Bowl is set to feature a matchup against the Big Ten, which would likely exclude USC, UCLA, Oregon, or Washington from the Pac-12 slot.
The Alamo Bowl, which typically features a Pac-12 vs. Big 12 matchup, presents a particularly unique challenge in terms of finding suitable opponents. According to the Action Network, the uncertainty surrounding the Pac-12’s bowl status has prompted Alamo Bowl officials to express interest in securing Oklahoma and Texas as the Big 12 representatives for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. However, both teams have recently departed the Big 12 for the SEC. While the SEC and Big 12 currently oppose this proposal, there is a slight possibility that we may witness conference expats on both sides of the bowl. Unfortunately, fans will miss out on the opportunity to see an all-Big Ten matchup in the Rose Bowl, as the game is now part of the College Football Playoff.
According to the Source deadspin.com