While football has been getting all the attention in the Pac-12 talks, basketball will also see the effects of expansion and are another of the issues being decided this week. It was always assumed the Pac-12 would forgo creating divisions for basketball, instead opting to throw every team into one division and get creative with scheduling. In football, divisions are necessary to host a championship game — one of the biggest reasons for expansion. In basketball, that’s not the case.
The Arizona Daily Star’s Bruce Pascoe gave a nice overview of the decisions that will shape the Pac-12 conference, noting the changes basketball would see in the near future.
The CEOs are almost certain to go with athletic directors’ recommendation of an 18-game format, with each school playing its geographic rival and six other teams twice every year. Four teams would be played only once and the only question is whether the four single-game teams would be rotated around on a five-year or 10-year cycle.
As expected, all 12 schools will be placed in one division and the rivalry games are all preserved. The details of the schedule, however, are not so clear. Which teams would be guaranteed home-and-homes, how the single games will be handled and what kind of rotating schedule will be in play are all important details that aren’t so easy to figure out.
We do know Larry Scott will announce the conference’s intentions Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Up until now, we’ve only heard about the football details being discussed. How the conferences will be aligned, how the television revenue will be split and what the details of the conference championship gain has garnered all the attention while basketball has taken a back seat.
Stay tuned for more on the basketball front as the conference begins to take shape this week.