Devil’s Advocate; Why I’m against the Pac-10 expanding to include members of the Big 12

Now, I’m just completely ignoring the money factor. Adding huge schools like Texas and Oklahoma was certainly provide a windfall of money for the athletic department and the university, money the state of California and UC-Berkeley sorely needs. According to reports, the Pac-10 would add Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado. I’m against adding the clubs for a few reasons.




Round Robin Removal. I love the round robin. There’s no unfair champions that way. You can’t say that we didn’t have a chance to beat somebody and you lose the conference that way. With a two division set up, you don’t get to prove you’re the best by playing the best, especially by avoiding a Texas or Oklahoma squad. A conference title game is not enough. I love the schedule as it is.

Losing Recruits. Would it be great to get a foothold in the Texas area? Definitely. Would it be bad to lose the California recruiting base? The way I see it, Texas schools would be able to take more California kids then we could with Texas schools. While this isn’t a huge factor, it still is one that exists/

Basketball/Baseball: Gah, what a joke the basketball schedule would be and how bad the travel would be? An 18 game basketball season would be a joke; do you play each team once? Or do you play only a couple games against the other division and 2 against each division opponent? Terrible idea for b-ball.

Added Competition. While I somewhat agree with “You gotta beat the best to be the best,” a conference with Texas, Oklahoma, USC, and Oregon is nearly impossible to win. We have a hard enough time to winning the conference already! It’s been 50 years since our last one, and with the added competition it could be another 50 years.

Road Trips. Going to Texas and Oklahoma is far too far to be traveling, and it could affect the team’s performance. I just don’t see the upside in going halfway across the nation for a conference game.



I’m sure there’s more I could come with, but these are 5 reasons that I could come up with against Pac-10 expansion. For the record, I’m against the Pac-16 but would be able to live with a Pac-12.