A San Diego State Aztecs helmet. Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports

Pac-12 sets expansion sights on San Diego State, SMU

By Andrew Kulha | Last updated 2/7/23

The Pac-12 desperately needs to expand.

With USC and UCLA set to join the Big Ten in 2024 and powerhouse schools like Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, the world of college sports is quickly going to become the land of two giant "power conferences" and those that have been left behind.

Like the Big 12, the Pac-12 is looking at a future of potentially being irrelevant, especially if schools like California, Oregon, Stanford and Washington are poached as well.

In the end, there's probably not much the conference can do to avoid it, but at the very least, commissioner George Kliavkoff seems to have his eyes set on two schools to bring into the fold: San Deigo State and SMU.

Pac-12 commish George Kliavkoff visiting SMU Wednesday, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. San Diego State & SMU are top Pac-12 expansion candidates. Pac-12 needs more members & more inventory for new media rights deal, which is expected to rely heavily on digital streaming services
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) February 8, 2023

San Diego State makes sense from a location standpoint for the Pac-12, and the Aztecs have recently been one of the best programs in the Mountain West, at least as far as football is concerned.

SMU would give the Pac-12 a team in Texas, which should hypothetically help in terms of a new media rights deal. The school is located in Dallas, after all, which is the fourth-biggest television market in the United States.

This would be a good start for the Pac-12, but one can't help but think that Kliavkoff will have to do much more to save his conference.

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