Report: Big 12 looking to add up to 6 Pac-12 schools, including Arizona

Arizona may soon be heading east.

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports is reporting the Big 12 Conference is “involved in deep discussions” to add as many as six schools from the Pac-12, including Arizona.

The Wildcats, along with ASU, Colorado and Utah, were “mentioned specifically as the teams being targeted by the Big 12,” per Dodd, with Oregon and Washington also possible targets. Also being considered is a complete merger of the Big 12 and Pac-12, he wrote.

The impetus to move was brought on by last week’s surprise departures of UCLA and USC from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten beginning with the 2024-25 athletic season.

The Big 12 is set to add four new schools to its league in 2023, the byproduct of Oklahoma and Texas on tap to leave for the SEC in 2025. Among those new additions is BYU, so adding other schools to the west would give the league travel partners.

Also joining the Big 12 next year is Cincinnati, Houston and UCF. The other current league members are Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia.

Arizona has been in the Pac-12 since 1978, having moved over from the Western Athletic Conference that year along with ASU. Colorado and Utah joined the league in 2011, with Colorado coming from the Big 12 and Utah from the Mountain West.