Pac-12 Men’s Basketball History
Pac-12 men’s basketball history
The Pac-12 was formed in 1959 as the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU), following the dissolution of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC). The conference was at different times known as the Big Five, Big Six, Pacific-8 and Pacific-10. Though it’s final name came from “Pacific-12,” the conference was officially known as the shortened Pac-12 Conference from 2011 until 2024.
During a round of nation-wide conference re-alignment, driven largely by football and television media rights, the programs in the Pac-12 began jumping to other power conferences. UCLA and USC were the first dominoes, announcing in June 2022 that they would both be making the move to the Big Ten in 2024. Over the next year or so, ten of the Pac-12’s final twelve universities would find new homes, leaving just Oregon State and Washington State behind – they would eventually form a scheduling alliance with the Mountain West in football and join the WCC as affiliate members in twelve other sports.
Below are the final twelve members of the Pac-12 and the conferences that they moved to in the summer of 2024:
See here for the full list of Division I men’s basketball programs, organized by conference.
