What are the new Pac-12’s prospects for men’s basketball?

Football is the driver of all conference alignment, but men’s basketball is on many people’s minds, especially as the Pac-12 crumbled. 

Now that the conference is back, what does it mean for college hoops? For starters, the additions are great from a basketball standpoint but present a troublesome situation for one of the nation’s best mid-major conferences in the Mountain West.

The Pac-12 is getting a San Diego State program that finished national runner-up in 2023 and three of the four teams qualified for the 2024 NCAA Tournament. For a league that once included UCLA, Oregon, Arizona and other perennial tournament teams, it’s a positive step. 

The Mountain West, meanwhile, is down to seven schools and lost three of its better teams. Last season, a record six MWC schools qualified for the NCAA Tournament, but the threat of losing UNLV and perhaps Nevada is real, which means the league must make a move quick. 

For the Pac-12, it is immediately a force in basketball and establishes itself once again as the best basketball conference exclusively out west. 

Oregon State made an Elite 8 appearance in 2021. Boise State has made the tournament each of the past three seasons. Colorado State defeated Virginia in the First Four last season. The list goes on. This is a quality basketball league that will make noise in the postseason.

Basketball will also make the league money. The conference will receive one unit for each tournament game its teams play before the final, with additional units awarded for at-large bids and schools that advance to later rounds. Last season, each unit was worth nearly $2M.

The league is not done adding members either. 

UNLV could be a target, but Nevada may have to come with them since they are part of the same university system.

Would California and Stanford want to come back? It may not be easy, according to The Athletic.

The ACC won’t let teams leave easily as the current lawsuit with Florida State and Clemson has shown. Still, keeping the conference’s geographic footprint out West is doable with other Mountain West options such as Wyoming or Air Force. Gonzaga or St. Mary’s would be viable options as basketball-only members. 

The current state of the league doesn’t have the pedigree of the old Pac-12 with UCLA’s championship banners or Arizona’s first-round NBA draft picks. But it does have a group of teams with quality coaches and demonstrated success. 

That should bode well in March.