UPDATE: USC and UCLA have been admitted into the Big -10 Conference.  Washington and Oregon have applied to join the Big-10.  A decision appears to be imminent on the latter.

10:23 AM PST, June 30th 2022, may go down as the time the Pac-12 changed forever. On this day, at that time, Jon Wilner broke the news that USC and UCLA were planning on leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big 10 within two years.

The Pac-12 would be irreparably damaged.  Losing two Los Angeles, California schools it removed one of top media markets in the country and certainly within the conference’s footprint.
This leaves the rest of the conference and especially UW given its market size, at a crossroads. If they made an attempt, UW would almost certainly be let into the Big 10 due to the amount of money the school makes as well as what the city of Seattle brings to the Big 10.

The same can be said for the University of Oregon. Both these schools would be let into the Big 10 with open arms, but would tradition hold them back?

Both schools have tradition heavily rooted in the Pac-12 name. Both these schools joined the Pac-12 (at the time called the Pacific Coast Conference) in 1915. That gives these schools over 100 years of history, 100 years of rivalries, that if they joined the Big 10, would be wiped away in seconds. No more Apple Cup, no more Civil War. It would almost certainly mean the end of the Pac-12 as a Power 5 Conference.

So this puts UW and Oregon at a crossroads. Do they take a chance on tradition, become the faces of the Pac-12 and hope to stay relevant, or jump ship, join the Big 10 and be a part of the growing trend that is super conferences. Only time will tell what these institution do, but no matter what they do, the impact will not go under stated and if they do join the Big 10, it could start an avalanche of teams leaving their respective conferences to join major conferences, and change the college football (and athletics) landscapes forever.