Colorado is in the process of leaving the Pac-12 and returning to the Big 12, according to multiple reports on Tuesday.
ESPN first reported news of CU's interest in re-joining the conference in which they were members from its 1996 founding through the 2010 football season, but Brett McMurphy of the Action Network followed that report by saying the Buffs will indeed make the move.
Colorado's Board of Regents is set to meet Wednesday and Thursday, and the Big 12's Board of Directors will approve the move on Thursday, per the report. ESPN reports the Big 12 will hold a call tonight to discuss the move.
Colorado is expected to re-join the conference in time for the 2024 football season.
Ironically, CU opens the 2023 season, its first under head coach Deion Sanders, at future conference-mate TCU. The Horned Frogs joined the Big 12 in 2012.
Colorado kicked off a wave of defections from the Big 12, joining what would become the Pac-12 on June 10, 2010. Nebraska would join the Big Ten two days later. Missouri and Texas A&M left for the SEC the following year, and Texas and Oklahoma are set to join them next summer.
Colorado has been the least-publicly-committed member to the Pac-12, and thus the most-rumored departure ever since USC and UCLA joined the Big Ten last summer.
"We’re members of the Pac-12, we’re proud members of the Pac-12 and we’ve got to see where our media rights deal lands and where our conference goes. In a perfect world, we’d love to be in the Pac-12, but we also have to do what’s right for Colorado at the end of the day," CU AD Rick George said. "We’ll evaluate things as we move forward.”
The Pac-12 announced its intent to sign its first post-USC/UCLA TV contract back on July 5, 2022, and still no deal has been presented. In the meantime, the Big 12 jumped the Pac-12 in line to sign a 6-year, $2.28 billion extension with ESPN and Fox last October, and McMurphy reports CU will receive a full $42 million share upon re-joining the league.
The Big 12 will play this season as a 14-member conference, with the plan to return to its "proper" number in 2024, but the conference is now heading toward a 13th member. If and when CU officially joins, the focus will then turn to Arizona, Arizona State and Utah.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.