The claim that the PAC-12 is “dead” is absolutely not true. The “PAC-12” or Pacific 12 is a division one sports conference that currently isn't dead, but it definitely will take a long time to be as popular as it has been for almost a century. Due to economic issues, the PAC-12 lost 10 out of its 12 teams to other conferences leaving just Oregon State and Washington state in a “PAC-2.” The PAC-12 used to be in the “power 5” which was the top 5 best conferences in division one. After losing schools like Oregon, USC, UCLA, Arizona State, and even Colorado the PAC-12 has to rebuild in order to gain some credibility back. The PAC-12 recently invited 5 schools from the lesser mountain west conference to compete in the PAC-12. These teams consist of Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, Utah State, and San Diego State which aren't as big as the schools the PAC-12 lost, but at least the conference is retooling. Along with that, Gonzaga decided to join the conference as a basketball member, while all the other schools are in the PAC-12 for all sports. Gonzaga does not have a football program. Implying that the PAC-12 is dead means that no teams are competing, no players want to come to play in the PAC-12, and there is no future to regain popularity for the PAC-12. Even though the conference currently consists of two teams, Oregon State and Washington State each school still actively participates in sports competitions. During the last college football season Washington State was even ranked in the top 25 best division one football teams during the season. Players are still committing to play sports at these schools. For example Oregon State has the 62nd ranked football recruitment class out of division one football and Washington State has the 77th ranked football recruitment class out of division one football with each school getting players from all over the country. In order to be an eligible FBS division one football conference you must have 8 active football participants. Currently the PAC-12 just has 7, so they have to find an additional team which the conference is actively doing. Unfortunately they haven’t found that team yet. The PAC-12 has reached out to other schools like Memphis, Tulane, and UNLV which resulted in the schools declining the offer, but this shows active attempts in adding the eighth school. Unless one of the original PAC-12 teams leaves their conference to go back to the PAC-12 the conference definitely lost some popularity and historical moments. However, the PAC-12 will still exist under less popularity and have less tradition than it once did. This means the conference is just retooling to deal with the new age of money being the driving factor in college sports. The conference will come back. It just needs time. This proves that the PAC-12 isn’t dead, it's just rebuilding for the future.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2025/01/01/what-happened-to-the-PAC-12-explaining-fall-rebuild-league/77323274007/
https://247sports.com/college/oregon-state/season/2025-football/commits/
https://247sports.com/college/washington-state/season/2025-football/commits/
