The Pacific-12 Conference expanded from ten teams to twelve in 2011 with the addition of the Big 12’s Colorado and the Mountain West’s Utah. This was the first time the conference had added teams since they added both Arizona and Arizona State in 1978.
Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said at the Pac-12 Media Days that the conference will not do anymore expanding in the future.
Reign of Troy reported that the commissioner took the stand to open the Media Days and said that he is completely fine with the way things are in the conference right now. He feels that twelve is the sweet spot for great competition.
“I do not see us expanding for the foreseeable future,” Scott said. “We are delighted with 12 schools. It’s worked exceedingly well for us.”
Scott then went on to say that there is no reason to expand further because the conference already has the toughest schedule in the country.
“Importantly, once again, the Pac-12 will have the toughest schedule in all of college football,” Scott said. “Simply put, no one will have a tougher road to the playoffs than the Pac-12 Champion.”
Scott also feels that having more than twelve teams in the conference doesn’t allow for the best competition to take place during the regular season. Right now with nine conference games, each team is able to play all but two teams in the conference every year. This makes for great match-ups at the top of the conference all season long.
“When you go beyond 12, you’re going to dilute somewhat. You’re going to have more erratic types of schedules within your conference,” Scott said.
It sounds like Scott could have been taking a small shot at the larger conferences in the country. The ACC, Big Ten, and SEC all have fourteen members and that sometimes brings about controversy when the best teams in the conference aren’t able to play each other until the championship game.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
