Oregon, Washington to Big Ten, while Big 12 adds Arizona, Arizona State, Utah

The Big 12 announced Friday night it is adding Arizona, Arizona State and Utah as members next year, completing its raid of the Pac-12.

The latest blow to the Pac-12 came just hours after the Big Ten welcomed Oregon and Washington to grow its new West Coast wing next year. A little more than a year ago, USC and UCLA announced they were joining the Big Ten in 2024. With the Ducks and Huskies, too, the Big Ten will be an 18-team conference.

The Big 12 has been targeting the Pac-12’s so-called Four Corner state schools for months, with Colorado making the jump last week.

The additions of the Arizona schools and Utah give the Big 12 16 schools, stretching from Florida to Arizona.

The Big Ten earlier on Friday cleared the way for the Pacific Northwest rivals to join the league next year, and the Ducks were first to make it official with a brief video call that ended in a unanimous vote by the school’s 13 trustees. The Big Ten a short time later said its presidents’ council had voted to accept the Ducks along with Washington.

“Our student-athletes will participate at the highest level of collegiate athletic competition, and our alumni, friends, and fans will be able to carry the spirit of Oregon across the country,” Oregon President John Karl Scholz said.

“We are excited to welcome the University of Oregon and the University of Washington to the Big Ten Conference,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said in a statement. “We look forward to building long-lasting relationships with the universities, administrators and staff, student-athletes, coaches and fans.

“Both institutions feature a combination of academic and athletic excellence that will prove a great fit for our future.”

Former Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren had encouraged member schools to strongly consider adding Oregon and Washington after the conference landed the two Los Angeles schools last summer — the blow that has sent the Pac-12 reeling for more than a year.

Pac-12 leaders met early Friday to determine if the remaining schools would accept the potential media rights deal with Apple that commissioner George Kilavkoff delivered to the group earlier this week, according to a person familiar with that meeting.

“Our schools are committed to each other and to the Pac-12. We’ll get our media rights deal done, we’ll announce the deal. I think the realignment that’s going on in college athletics will come to an end for this cycle,” Kliavkoff said last month during the Pac-12 football media day.

But with Oregon, Washington, Utah and both Arizonas opting to move on, the Pac-12 now left with only four members: Stanford, California, Oregon State and Washington State.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.