It’s been pretty quiet recently on the conference realignment front, but on Tuesday evening, Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported that those winds are still blowing.
McMurphy reported that Pac-12 Conference commissioner George Kliavkoff will visit SMU on Wednesday as he eyes potential expansion candidates.
McMurphy added that SMU and San Diego State “are top Pac-12 expansion candidates.” He furthermore said that the Pac-12 “needs more members & more inventory for new media rights deal, which is expected to rely heavily on digital streaming services.”
Pac-12 commish George Kliavkoff visiting SMU Wednesday, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. San Diego State & SMU are top Pac-12 expansion candidates. Pac-12 needs more members & more inventory for new media rights deal, which is expected to rely heavily on digital streaming services
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) February 8, 2023
Adding SMU, which currently plays in the American Athletic Conference, would give the Pac-12 a market in Dallas, Texas. Adding San Diego State would give the conference a market in Southern California after the departures of UCLA and USC to the Big Ten Conference.
Adding both would restore the number of conference teams to 12 once UCLA and USC leave in 2024.
Last July at the Pac-12’s football media days, which came a month after UCLA and USC announced their departure for the Big Ten, Kliavkoff said the conference was “actively exploring expansion opportunities.”
He listed market/media value, athletic value, academic and cultural fit, and the effects on student-athletes as criteria for an expansion candidate, adding that the goal is to get invitations to the College Football Playoff, which at the time had not yet expanded to 12 teams. The College Football Playoff will expand in the 2024 season.
Kliavkoff said then that media rights negotiations would be “accelerating,” although the conference has yet to finalize any sort of deal, as McMurphy indicated.