Gutted Pac-12 Members Might Merge with Mountain West

Today, CBS Sports college football writer Dennis Dodd wrote about the Big 12 and its interest in adding up to six Pac-12 schools. If he's right and Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, and Washington all depart for the Big 12, there would be just four schools left in the Pac-12. Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, and Washington State would be the sole survivors of the Pac-12's dismemberment. If this happens, one scenario makes the most sense for them.

A potential merger between the Pac-12 and Mountain West Conference would be the end result I would bet on. The MWC is currently at 12 schools for football, adding Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, and Washington State to the mix would expand the league to 16. If this does in fact happen, the new league would either dissolve the Pac-12 or Mountain West Conference name. Regardless of what name they stick with, the 16-teams that would make up the football conference would most likely stay as a Group of 5. Basketball would be at 15 since Hawaii only competes in football for the MWC. KTSM's Colin Deaver wrote about this last week, and he also speculated that Gonzaga could wind up as a possible non-football member which would get the league back up to 16.

If the dominoes fall like the situation listed above, most likely Conference USA will not be impacted at all by the series of moves. I would not expect the new MWC-Pac 12 merger to want more teams than they already have so UTEP's chances to rejoin their old WAC foes would not be a reality. C-USA was in a similar spot as the Pac-12 last summer and they chose to bring in NMSU, Sam Houston, Liberty, and Jacksonville State to fill the void left by six members leaving for the AAC and another three to the Sun Belt.

One thing to always remember is that the college athletics landscape is constantly evolving. What might not be feasible today could change in a matter of days, if not hours. When the smoke clears, the SEC and Big 10 will be the two biggest and most prestigious conferences in college sports. Then, you will have the Big 12 and ACC followed by everyone else.