UCLA Bruins coach Chip Kelly finally breaks silence on the unprecedented collapse of Pac-12 and its rich traditions: "It's just sad"
The Pac-12 is on the verge of falling apart altogether as eight of the 12 schools have already announced that they will be leaving the conference in 2024. The UCLA Bruins, along with the USC Trojans, were the first to announce their plans to leave, having done so in June 2022.
Bruins coach Chip Kelly, who also previously coached the Oregon Ducks, revealed his thoughts on the conference falling apart. Speaking with Mike Golic Jr. on "The GoJo Show," Kelly was asked how he feels about the state of the Pac-12. He responded:
"Sad. There's such a history and tradition of this league and a lot of my fondest experiences as a coach are in this league. It's just hard to actually really fathom that there's four teams left right now and it's probably what's wrong with college athletics right now.
"I understand it and we probably were the impetus of when it all started because us and Southern Cal were the first teams to leave, but it's become a money-driven thing."
Kelly continued:
"You're offered $75 million to play in this league and if you stay, you get $30 [million] or less in that league. I have friends in this conference and they all said the same thing: 'If we had gotten the same offer, we would've done it, too.'
"It's just sad that when you think of the history and tradition of this league that a year from now there's not even going to be - I don't think anybody ever fathomed that there's not even going to be a Pac-10 or a Pac-12. That's going to be hard."
Check out Chip Kelly's comments here.
In addition to the Bruins and Trojans, the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies will join the Big Ten. Meanwhile, the Arizona Wildcats, Arizona State Sun Devils, Colorado Buffaloes and Utah Utes will join the Big 12.
What's the latest on the remaining Pac-12 schools?
The California Bears, Oregon State Beavers, Stanford Cardinal and Washington State Cougars are the only schools to have not announced plans to leave the Pac-12. That will change in the coming days, according to college football analyst Greg Swaim, who tweeted:
"BREAKING NEWS: The #ACC is going to add #Stanford, #CalBears and #SMU. Desperate situations call for extremely desperate measures, as they're each basically buying their way in. Additionally #Wazzu and the #Beavs will become the first P5's to drop to G5, err P4 to G6, I mean!!"
Check out Greg Swaim's tweet regarding the departure of the remaining four schools here.
While nothing has been made official, all signs have pointed towards the schools leaving the conference. It remains to be seen if Pac-12 officials can pull off a last ditch effort to save the conference.