Sources told Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger that Big 12 executives met Thursday to approve an application for Arizona to join the league. The Arizona Board of Regents was meeting on Thursday night with a formal approval to switch conferences expected to be finalized soon.
Should the move come to fruition as expected, Arizona would become the fourth Pac-12 member to leave the conference in the last 13 months. Last July, UCLA and USC accepted invitations to the Big Ten, also effective 2024. Sources told Dellenger that Arizona State and Utah are also expansion targets of the Big 12. However, talks with those schools have not progressed as quickly as Arizona, though the Sun Devils and Utes remain viable options to defect to the Big 12 with a decision expected in the coming days.
Oregon and Washington are seen as the two most valuable brands remaining in the Pac-12, and they could end up in the Big Ten. Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel reported Thursday that the Big Ten is in wait-and-see modewith the Pac-12 on increasingly shaky ground.