Canzano: Pac-12 expansion debate goes on field trip to Las Vegas
Pac-12 needs to add at least one football school.
LAS VEGAS — Matt Kelly sprung a mid-term project on the students in the Marketing 460 course he teaches at Pacific University.
“What is more timely than rebuilding the Pac-12?” he asked.
Kelly works at Adidas. He’s been employed previously at Nike and Columbia Sportswear. This term, the adjunct professor at the campus in Forest Grove directed his students to imagine themselves as consultants. Their task is to assist Commissioner Teresa Gould’s conference with the next expansion bite.
Field trip, anyone?
I’m in Las Vegas to see the conference basketball tournaments being held here. The Pac-12’s next move is winding toward a resolution. The conference has until July 1, 2026, to add at least one more football-playing member.
UNLV?
Memphis?
How about Tulane or South Florida? Or a Texas-based school as an addition? Texas State or UTSA? Someone else we’re missing?
As one of the new-look league’s ADs told me: “There are no surprise schools. It’s the same list of eight or nine schools that everyone is publicly sorting through.”
The eight new-world Pac-12 athletic directors are scheduled to meet on Tuesday in Las Vegas. Agenda items include an update on the conference’s media rights negotiations from their media consultant (Octagon) and more discussion about expansion.