Analysts and ESPN reporters publish their early predictions for the new Pac-12 and its outlook in the main three sports of Football, Baseball, and Basketball. New factors however have been added into College sports over the past few years, including ways that can impact these schools’ seasons next year, and even in the next five. With NIL, Transfer Portal, and other smaller more intricate details that’ll tail certain teams into spiralling rabbit holes all over again, or large triumphs by the end of the year.

To start off, football wise, Washington State, Oregon State, and Boise State have been popular teams for good or bad reasons. But these other teams who have been a little bit under the radar at a group of 5 conferences like Texas State, Utah State, Fresno State, Colorado State, and San Diego State, where do they stack up? 

If you factor in NIL and Transfer portal, the chances of getting big time studs to come to less popularized colleges will be minimal, but never zero. For the 90% of this conference, trying to buy out players with NIL deals will be slim at most and probably focused to one, maybe two players. 

However, these former small conference teams could see themselves with a surplus joining this new conference. The well known “Conference Of Champions” will be in the back of most players’ minds. 

For example, Mekhi Buchanan, who originally was from the University of Virginia transferred to Texas State. Darrian Anderson from the University of Oregon transferred to Fresno State. Even Alabama 5-star Wide receiver “Bubba” Hampton found his way into OSU. These teams are still finding themselves top athletes that maybe they haven’t gotten over the past few years being stuck in lower classed conferences. Besides joining the new conference, it’s still not the division it was back before everyone disbanded.

Formally known as a Power 5, it homed the well known University of Oregon, USC, UCLA, and others. After they left, people immediately dropped the thought of the Pac-12 being a Power 5 conference, hence the name Power 4 recently. As much as all the Washington State and Oregon State fans want to believe that their conference can compete with the other top divisions in the league. It’s going to take a little more than simply adding new teams to make it the Pac-12 we used to know and love. 

So the complaint of maybe having to sneak into a spot in the playoffs instead of being guaranteed one may not be as much of a biased issue as we thought. This doesn’t mean it won’t be a competitive conference. The combination of west coast, south, and even rocky mountain football will fill a variety of boxes for a complete conference. 

My take on the whole matter is that it is great that the Pac-12 is back. Oregon State and Washington State no longer have to sit in a two team conference and act as independent teams anymore. Plus, now the NCAA has one of its oldest and most prestigious conferences back in action. However, it’s not the same. 

With the way the college world is now, especially in football, there almost is no more uniqueness in conferences. The Big 12 that originally was full of teams from the south, now includes BYU and UCF from Utah and Florida. The Big 10 that was solely built off of Great lake and East side football, includes Oregon, Washington, and California. What is the point of Conferences anymore then? If teams from the West side of the United States can join a conference made for the South East side, then why can’t we all just be one big conference.

 That’s a story for a different time. The issue with this new Pac-12 is that it almost follows a little bit of what all the new conferences are doing. Texas State is the only one that didn’t make much sense, but at least it is only one and not half the conference. It’s sad to see how it all comes together in the end, with people pushing aside these teams, but maybe this conference is a little closer than we had thought. 

It’s hard to make complete predictions on a new division like the Pac-12, but it won’t be difficult to kind of put teams in certain categories. For example, Oregon State, Washington State, and Boise State are formerly ranked, formerly higher known programs, especially now in this new one, where they can be looked at as the “Big Dawgs”. 

However, each of these teams have had their moments where they haven’t been considered one of the best. Gonzaga in all sports despite football, are also in the category and would most definitely be one of if not the best team in this conference. 

Texas State and Fresno State are a toss up. They have had some really good teams in the past. They are two programs that seem to put up a good fight regardless of the team they face or present. However, they seemed to be pushed aside a lot, and hopefully with this new conference they can possibly gain more publicity, gain more recruiting prowess, then become a top market team like OSU, WSU, and Boise. 

Colorado State and Utah State are interesting. Both teams that seem to give top ten teams runs for their money, but never get to actually get the big win. They have had some of course, just never enough to really say they have that factor to be put with the best, which is why this conference is perfect for them because they can earn their honor for what they have done, rather than be overlooked in the Mountain West. 

Lastly, San Diego State is tough.  They have had a rough go at it in numerous sports, but never the worst team. It’s hard to completely rank them higher or lower then they already are, but like I said before, the new Pac-12 is going to be perfect for the Aztecs. It’s going to give them what they want in a tough battle and conference. That’s the beauty of this whole thing, the conference works for everyone. Whether to give them the notice they needed, or to stay in the conference that everyone left, not wanting to follow in their footsteps, it’s perfect. 

The whole conference realignment is brutal, don’t get me wrong. Having to travel across the country for a division game is not good education wise. At the same time, the Pac-12 needed to be back. Forcing the oldest division one school in Oregon to be booted out of a conference, for Washington State to no longer be able to compete. That’s what’s different about this new conference coming up, is that it’s giving opportunities that the other bigger ones didn’t.

 These teams who succeeded in smaller groups of 5 conferences now get a step up in competition, a way to make a name for themselves. So the outlook for the new Pac-12 is going to be a slow start, and will obviously never be the same as it was before. These new chances however are the stepping stones to great success for these new teams, and I’m excited to see how this all unravels. Just as long as the other teams don’t get full of themselves, like the other 10 that left did.