Oregon State president releases statement on Pac-12’s ‘rebuild’ effort, future plans

With just four teams set to be part of what was formerly the Pac-12 in 2024, it appears the plan is to build the conference back up. Oregon State president Jayathi Murthy released a statement to back up that idea Friday afternoon.

OSU, Cal, Stanford and Washington State are the four schools left behind by the latest round of realignment. Six schools announced their plans to leave the Pac-12 in 2024 over the last couple weeks, joining USC and UCLA as they head to new homes following the expiration of the league’s grant of rights.

Despite having just four members left after this year, Murthy reaffirmed the commitment to keeping the Pac-12 — or a new version of it — part of the college sports landscape.

“We continue to believe that preserving the Pac-12 is in the best interests of OSU student-athletes and the remaining universities, and so we are doing everything in our control to stabilize and rebuild the conference,” Murthy wrote in a letter to the Oregon State community. “As a trusted broker and convenor, Oregon State is playing an important role in navigating both the future of the Pac-12 and the realignment among universities across the Western United States more broadly.

“We are ready for this challenge. We are prepared for multiple possible scenarios and continue to pursue every opportunity for OSU student-athletes and the university.”

The so-called Pac-4 took an interesting step toward a resurrection on Friday, reportedly hiring former West Virginia athletic director and XFL commissioner Oliver Luck as a consultant, Canzano reported Friday. He was seen as a potential candidate for the Pac-12 commissioner job which ultimately went to George Kliavkoff, but he has also made an impact in of previous realignment changes.

Luck served as a consultant for the Big 12 in 2021 shortly after the announced departures of Oklahoma and Texas under former commissioner Bob Bowlsby. At the time, the Big 12 looked like it was in deep trouble as it lost two high-profile members. In fact, a possible merger with the Pac-12 was floated.

Ultimately, though, the Big 12 opted to add BYU along with three schools from the American Athletic Conference — Cincinnati, Houston and UCF — the Sooners and Longhorns’ decisions to leave for the SEC.

If the Pac-4 want to stay together and rebuild the conference, there’s a route they could take. NCAA rules say recognizes a conference as part of the FBS if it has eight teams, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger. However, there is a two-year grace period if a league falls below that mark. An NCAA bylaw states a conference will still be considered part of the FBS for two years after it drops below the eight-team threshold.

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