What’s it worth to shut up a supposed partner?

That’s not rhetorical. It’s a real question the ACC must consider — especially now, after news broke late Tuesday night that the league and its noisiest two schools, Florida State and Clemson, are discussing a proposal wherein both universities would drop their lawsuits against the conference. All the ACC has to do to make that so?

Oh, you know. Nothing too wild. Just adjust its revenue formula (again), embrace another unequal distribution model and funnel as many dollars as possible to its schools 1) with the biggest brand values and 2) that drive the most television viewership …

Aka, the two schools actively suing the league.

During a regularly scheduled meeting of ACC presidents and chancellors on Tuesday, there were discussions (among other topics) about alternate revenue models, a person briefed on the meeting confirmed. Hours after that meeting, ESPN and Yahoo! Sports both reported that FSU and Clemson would be open to staying in the league if financial adjustments — more like concessions — are made. Gee, how kind of them.

Then there’s the second part to Clemson and FSU’s supposed pitch, reported by ESPN: potentially shortening the league’s grant of rights, possibly to 2030, which aligns with the expiration…

LAS VEGAS — At halftime of the Utah-Arizona State first-round conference tournament game, the Pac-12 mascots engaged in a game of musical chairs. As the mascots started to get eliminated — Tommy the Trojan, Wilma the Wildcat, then Puddles the Duck — it was hard not to think of the state of the conference as a whole, especially when Benny the Beaver was the only one left with a chair (or rather, inflatable donut).

Some PAC-12 mascot musical chair fun pic.twitter.com/ldRYc7SMDG

— Malaina Humphreys (@mmalainaa) March 7, 2024

 

In the chaos of conference realignment, most of the Pac-12 schools grabbed any available chair they could find, no matter what league it came in. Ten schools jumped ship, leaving Oregon State and Washington State clinging to the remnants of a once-proud conference, like Benny holding onto that inflatable for dear life.

In Las Vegas during the Pac-12 tournament, the conference’s cloudy future dampens the mood of the festivities. Even as teams celebrate big wins, they’re left lamenting the fact that these opponents won’t be on their schedule next season, that the coaches they’ve formed lasting bonds with won’t be making the trip to their arenas anymore. There are still resumes to build and a championship to win, but an undercurrent of sadness…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Power conferences understandably dominate discussion, particularly Bubble Watch talk, this time of year. All the teams fighting in the middle, yearning for resume-supplementing wins, provide some of the most notable matchups and storylines.

However, it’s worth pausing and noting some of the more under-the-radar seasons in the country, especially the programs that we are trending toward hearing about in March. I can think of few teams more deserving of that mention than Marshall.

The Thundering Herd are 20-6, a standout record on its own but even more notable when recognizing this is the first time since the 2016 season they have eclipsed the 20-win mark and just the second time since they left the Southern Conference in 1997. This is West Virginia native Kim Caldwell’s first season at the helm in Huntington. She led her alma mater, DII Glenville State, for seven seasons, including a national championship in 2022. In her first foray as a head coach at the highest level of collegiate basketball, something special is brewing.

Find it your local newspaper #WeAreMarshall

Cal chancellor Carol Christ was awoken at 5 a.m. Pacific Time with a loud knock on her hotel room door in San Diego. She opened the door, where a hotel employee informed her she had an urgent phone call.

“It turned out to be very good news,” she said Friday.

After a tumultuous month of conference realignment, Cal and Stanford will remain in a “power” conference, joining the ACC. SMU is also coming aboard as the league expands to 17 full members, plus Notre Dame in non-football sports. Yet another conference will span coast to coast. The future of Cal and Stanford involves more trips east, less television revenue than most of their new conference peers and perhaps splitting the travel distance with conference gatherings in Dallas.

“A month ago, I didn’t have any gray hair,” Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton joked. “So yes there is a little bit of relief, but we’ve been working on options for a year. For a month, it’s been a frenzy to evaluate all those options. I’m thrilled with where we ended up because it really feels like it fit all our criteria.”

With Cal, Stanford and SMU’s jump to the ACC, what does it mean for the bigger picture of realignment?

“Everyone is just doing what they can to survive at this point.” pic.twitter.com/G2a6X9r7uI

— The…

The next step in conference realignment begins with the Stanford Cardinal and the Cal Golden Bears.

While four Pac-12 schools are currently figuring out their future, the belief around the country is that the Cardinal and Golden Bears will determine what happens next. They’ve made a push to join the ACC, but there are not enough votes at the moment.

Stanford, Cal, the Oregon State Beavers and the Washington State Cougars aren’t without options. They won’t be left in the wilderness. But the options on the table are not ideal when a school is coming from what was a Power 5 conference with a century of history.

So what are the options for the Pac-4? Here are the possibilities that have been discussed, according to people familiar with the scenarios who were granted anonymity to speak about the discussions.

Recreating a Pac conference

Administrators around the country remain baffled that the Pac-12 chose not to expand before its media deal. Had it added San Diego State and SMU in the spring, perhaps it would have six members right now and could continue on. But now, it’s hard to see the Pac-12 surviving in any form. The idea of the remaining Pac-4 schools backfilling as the Big East once did to keep the conference alive in a new form — rather than collapse like the Southwest…

The Big Ten is expected to officially approve Oregon and Washington as new members later Friday, league sources tell The Athletic.

The news comes after a frenzied 36 hours. Early Friday morning, momentum for the two schools had slowed considerably, but then the Pac-12 met to discuss its new media rights deal and its future. Afterward, the Big Ten presidents and chancellors met, and the group eventually agreed to offer official invitations to Oregon and Washington — to become the league’s 17th and 18th members. The invites come a little more than a day after The Athletic reported that the Big Ten presidents authorized commissioner Tony Petitti to pursue expansion, and one week after Colorado left the Pac-12 for its former home conference, the Big 12.

The additions come barely 14 months after the Big Ten welcomed Pac-12 flagship programs USC and UCLA as new members beginning Aug. 2, 2024. That movement launched the Pac-12 into chaos in the aftermath, especially in almost-daily showdowns with the Big 12 over expansion.

The Pac-12’s inability to secure a quality linear media rights contract coupled with the Big 12’s media rights agreement, reached last fall, led many Pac-12 programs to consider leaving the historic conference. It came to a head last week when Colorado…

The Athletic has live coverage of Colorado’s move to the Big 12.

Colorado is planning to exit the Pac-12 to join the Big 12 in 2024, the school officially announced Thursday afternoon.

The university’s Board of Regents unanimously approved a resolution Thursday allowing Colorado to join the Big 12 effective for the 2024-25 academic year.

The Big 12’s board of presidents and chancellors had already voted unanimously on Wednesday night to accept Colorado as a member of the conference, a person familiar with the Big 12’s discussions confirmed to The Athletic.

The school would officially become a Big 12 member in the summer of 2024 at the conclusion of the Pac-12’s current media rights deal. With Colorado’s addition, the Big 12 would become a 13-member conference and the Pac-12 would be left with nine remaining schools.

It’s a significant achievement for Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark at the end of his first year leading the conference. USC and UCLA announced they would join the Big Ten one day after Yormark was hired last June. Since then, the Big 12 has aggressively pursued expansion candidates with a focus on adding Pac-12 members.

A statement from the Commissioner. pic.twitter.com/UtGgY5WnTf

— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) July 27, 2023

The yearlong…

The NCAA waiver allowing first-time transfers immediate eligibility created one of the biggest shifts in college sports in the last decade. Players now have significantly more freedom to move between schools, making it sometimes seem like an exodus of players from one program to the next.

After the 2019-20 season, just more than 600 women’s basketball players ended up in the portal. Last year, that number nearly doubled to 1,197 players in the transfer portal. Just days into the NCAA Tournament, more than 450 women’s basketball players are already in the portal. Coaches sometimes bemoan portal-induced roster turnover of both starters and reserves, but they also know the portal is a key means to building their own programs for the upcoming season and beyond.

Here’s a look at the top prospects who are available in the transfer portal:

Hottinger has her COVID-19 season to use, and the reigning Patriot League player of the year has opted to go elsewhere. She averaged 20.3 points and 9.5 rebounds this season and has 62 career starts under her belt, so she’d bring productivity and experience with her. She should be able to make the jump to the power conference level. With Dawn Plitzuweit named the Gophers’ new coach Saturday, could we see this Minnesota native return home?

GO…

Last July, weeks after USC and UCLA’s stunning Big Ten announcement, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff made a bold realignment prediction: “No Pac-12 school is going to the Big 12.”

Eight months later, we may finally learn whether his confidence was justified or false bravado.

Kliavkoff is facing pressure to deliver a new media rights deal to his members by the end of the month. If the dollar figures or the details are underwhelming, March may be the moment when the Big 12 finally strikes. Sources briefed on the discussions say the conference has been in recent contact with the so-called Four Corners schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — which has renewed optimism that convincing them to join is possible.

Brett Yormark has eyed westward expansion since the day he was hired as the Big 12’s new commissioner last summer. Yormark has never been shy about his interest in expanding the Big 12 into the “fourth time zone” to establish a truly national conference and boost the value of his league’s media rights. The arrival of BYU this summer will get the Big 12 into the Mountain Time Zone. Yormark wants more, though he has always said any additions need to be additive and not dilutive.

“I don’t think any of us are trying to dismantle the…

A Pac-12 school has a certain character. The beautiful weather of the West Coast, a strong academic and athletic environment, and a propensity for success.

For years, that vibe has been perhaps best epitomized by UCLA and USC, schools that boast 120 and 111 national titles, respectively, across all sports, and happen to be located in ideal places to conduct mid-winter recruiting visits. Their presence has been integral to the identity of the conference of champions.

But the Los Angeles schools have only one more full season left in the Pac-12 before moving to the Big Ten. When they exit, a piece of this conference’s fabric goes with them and presents new challenges from recruiting dynamics to losing a foothold in the United States’ second-largest media market. The changing landscape presents unique questions for the future of Pac-12 women’s college basketball in particular.

Although there’s disappointment and curiosity about what’s to come, there’s one aspect of its DNA that the conference refuses to change: the winning.

The Pac-12 calls itself the best women’s basketball conference in the country for good reason. Over the past 10 years, six different programs (Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, Washington, Oregon and Arizona) have made the NCAA Tournament Final Four,…