hiphopfroggy

The reason is TV ratings. OSU/TCU/TT/BU would increase the TV ratings average of the Pac, thus increasing the value of a potential new TV contract. The other great thing about adding 4 schools to the Pac, for Pac schools and their fans, is the return to the original Pac 8. Ship the desert and mountain schools to the east division with the former Big 12 teams and voila, the original Pac 8 is back baby! Which is great for nostalgia but also to get annual games between USC and Oregon, and Washington. Those are big money games that the Pac currently leaves on the table 50% of the time. Adding 4 more teams to the Pac actually increases the # of games between original Pac schools.

TCU fan here. To me the best move for the Pac is to add OSU/TCU/TT/BU. Here are the TV #'s: First is from 2015-2019 The numbers next to each school indicate the average number of viewers per week from 2015–19. Streaming numbers are included when available. Conference championship games and bowl games are not included in these numbers. Games that do not have available data were counted as zero. Ohio State (5.19M) Alabama (5.09M) Michigan (4.18M) Notre Dame (3.61M) LSU (3.22M) Auburn (3.12M) Georgia (2.91M) Oklahoma (2.90M) Clemson (2.67M) Penn State (2.55M) Florida (2.46M) Wisconsin (2.27M) Texas (2.269M) Florida State (2.23M) Michigan State (2.20M) Southern Cal (1.98M) Texas A&M (1.851M) Tennessee (1.849M) Oklahoma State (1.64M) Mississippi (1.61M) Iowa (1.57M) Nebraska (1.51M) Miami (1.503M) TCU (1.495M) Stanford (1.43M) Oregon (1.34M) Arkansas (1.33M) Washington (1.32M) Mississippi State (1.31M) West Virginia (1.27M) Virginia Tech (1.26M) UCLA (1.25M) Louisville (1.22M) Indiana (1.17M) Baylor (1.12M) South Carolina (1.07M) Navy (1.01M) Texas Tech (921K) Washington State (909K) Northwestern (867K) Utah (856K) Army (825K) Minnesota (803K) Pittsburgh (781K) North Carolina (749K) Iowa State (747K) California (730K) BYU (714K) NC State (703K) Arizona State (695K) Syracuse (694K) Houston (689K) Kansas State (682K) Maryland (681K) Purdue (620K) Georgia Tech (615K) Missouri (611K) Colorado (610K) Virginia (592K) UCF (566K) Memphis (564K) Arizona (561K) Kentucky (484K) Boise State (476K) Vanderbilt (438K) Cincinnati (430K) Duke (410K) USF (407K) Boston College (403K) Illinois (401K) Wake Forest (398K) Temple (354K) Kansas (346K) Oregon State (295K) Rutgers (266K) Tulsa (265K) SMU (232K) Colorado State (130K) Fresno State (127K) Wyoming (126K) Air Force (121K) New Mexico (97K) Hawaii (94K) East Carolina (82K) Nevada (80K) San Diego State (63K) UNLV (55K) Tulane (42K) San Jose State (30K) With USC the only PAC 12 school averaging more CFB tv viewers than either OSU or TCU from 2015-2019, those two seem to be the obvious adds at 13 and 14, with Baylor and TT rounding out the 16. Next are the #'s from 2021 Ranking the most-watched college football programs in 2021 The numbers next to each school indicate the average number of viewers per week for a 12-week season. Streaming numbers are included when available. Games that do not have available data are counted as zero. Ohio State — 5.22M Michigan — 4.74M Alabama — 4.64M Penn State — 3.87M Georgia — 3.61M Oklahoma — 3.46M Auburn — 3.22M Michigan State — 2.89M Notre Dame — 2.84M Oregon — 2.57M Wisconsin — 2.41M Nebraska — 2.29M Texas — 2.26M Florida — 2.21M Arkansas — 2.03M LSU — 1.90M Texas A&M — 1.86M Mississippi — 1.81M Clemson — 1.74M Iowa — 1.64M Purdue — 1.63M Oklahoma State — 1.58M Tennessee — 1.51M Minnesota — 1.28M Florida State — 1.27M Indiana — 1.24M Iowa State — 1.219M Cincinnati — 1.216M UCLA — 1.18M Baylor — 1.16M Illinois — 1.13M Southern Cal — 1.11M Kentucky — 1.08M Navy — 1.039M Miami — 1.038M North Carolina — 1.032M Utah — 994K Washington — 985K Maryland — 971K West Virginia — 948K TCU — 907K BYU — 893K Mississippi State — 858K Army — 804K Texas Tech — 798K Stanford — 778K Arizona State — 739K Northwestern — 716K Kansas State — 636K Louisville — 616K Virginia — 611K South Carolina — 575K Pittsburgh — 550K Kansas — 540K Wake Forest — 526K NC State — 525K Boise State — 495K Rutgers — 488K Washington State — 483K Missouri — 462K Georgia Tech — 459K Virginia Tech — 447K UCF — 407K Colorado — 366K Tulsa — 358K Tulane — 356K Arizona — 337K Louisiana — 334K Oregon State — 321K South Florida — 303K East Carolina — 301K Air Force — 255K Appalachian State — 241K Houston — 232K Coastal Carolina — 223K California — 222K Syracuse — 219K Memphis — 193K Western Michigan — 171K SMU — 164K UAB — 163K Northern Illinois — 163K Boston College — 156K Hawaii — 139K Ohio — 130K Eastern Michigan — 122K Buffalo — 119K Kent State — 117K Temple — 112.7K Ball State — 112.6K Western Kentucky — 97K Utah State — 91K Akron — 90K Marshall — 85K Nevada — 78K Duke — 64K UTEP — 63K Colorado State — 59K San Jose State — 59K UTSA — 51.9K Georgia State — 51.7K ULM — 50K Fresno State — 45K Wyoming — 38K Vanderbilt — 37K San Diego State — 35K UNLV — 34K South Alabama — 26K New Mexico — 25K Only Oregon in the Pac had better TV ratings than OSU. OSU seems to be the clear pick for team #13. Of course they and Baylor were atop the Big12 and other than OSU and Oregon, only UCLA in the Pac had better ratings than Baylor last year. After USC, Washington and Utah comes TCU followed by TT. It seems like OSU/BU/TCU/TT would increase the TV ratings average of the Pac if added, with TT being the least valuable of the 4. Houston has worse ratings than Oregon State. https://medium.com/run-it-back-with-zach/which-college-football-programs-were-the-most-watched-in-2021-49ef4f315858