Bruce Feldman reveals the state of the Pac-12 following USC, UCLA departure

Following the landscape-shaking news of UCLA and USC leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, college football insider Bruce Feldman joined the Rich Eisen Show to discuss what’s next for the conference out west. Feldman revealed specifically that he does not believe Oregon is going to follow in USC and UCLA’s footsteps, at least not yet.

“From what I had heard late last night, it was ‘don’t be that confident that Oregon’s going to the Big Ten ASAP,” Feldman told Eisen. “To me, on the surface of this when I first heard that, you have the two L.A. schools, and then you have Washington and Oregon. Oregon is Portland and Washington is Seattle, those are big media markets. You have travel partners for a West Coast footprint, but I’m not sure it’s lining up that way.

“Again, Phil Knight’s as heavy a hitter as there is in global sports. Is he going to sit on the sidelines and let this school, that he has built so much, he’s invested so much in the NIL piece to make sure Oregon’s going to be a player … What happens, where do they land? It’s going to be a much-diminished Pac-12 … I’m not saying it feels more like the Mountain West, you still have programs that have been successful, it just doesn’t have the same command.”

Rich Eisen and Feldman also noted that the Big 12 conference could look to add some West Coast markets.

“If I was the Big 12,” Feldman said. “I’d be very intrigued by the idea of bringing in Phil Knight’s school, Washington, Utah, there are some interesting dominoes.”

Lawmakers in Oregon, Washington attempting to keep Pac-12 universities together

John Canzano of 750 The Game in Portland says there is an effort to emphasize that the public does not want the Pac-12 to disband. If successful, it would keep Oregon-Oregon State together as well as Washington-Washington State.

“Spoke to lawmakers in Washington and Oregon today,” Canzano began. “There’s a movement afoot to emphasize that the public and taxpayers do not want public Pac-12 universities split from each other. The effort, if successful, would keep OSU-Oregon together and WSU-Washington together.”

Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington joined the Pac-12 in 1915, being founding members. Washington State came two years later in 1917, meaning all four have a long tradition with the West Coast’s premier conference.

Now, their futures could be in jeopardy, even if they are connected to one another by their respective state’s lawmakers. Rivalries between the four schools have run deep for many years but with conference realignment, nothing in college football is safe anymore.

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this report.