When USC and UCLA announced their departure from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten, mayhem ensued, rumors swirled (and continue to swirl), and yet more than two weeks later, nothing else has changed. The remaining ten schools in the Pac-12 remain together, the Big XII hasn’t scooped anyone up, and the longer things remain as they are, the more likely it looks that the ten remaining schools in the Pac-12 are going to at least make a go of trying to stick together while the conference tries to lock down a new television deal. It also looks possible that the Pac-12 will expand either in the form of an alliance with the ACC or Big XII or adding more schools to their league. Or maybe both.
In the immediate aftermath of all this, a lot of people were saying this was the end of the Pac-12. That the league was doomed. That UCLA and USC were the two most important programs in the Pac-12 and that nobody even came close to gracing their relevancy and success. But is that really true? It is true that they occupy the biggest media market in the Pac-12. No other place in the conference has a larger population than Los Angeles. That’s for sure. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they have been the most successful athletic programs in the conference.
When you look at the list of which schools have the most NCAA titles of all-time (Divisions I, II, and III), USC and UCLA do rank really high. In team national championships, UCLA ranks #2 (119) while USC ranks #3 (111). In individual national championships, USC ranks #3 (420) while UCLA ranks number #10 (278). When you look at those numbers combined with their media market, it is clear that the loss of UCLA and USC is a major blow to the Pac-12. No doubt about it.
But, are either of those programs the most important program in the Pac-12? It might be easy to think they are when looking at that data. Which Pac-12 program could possibly be ranked higher than both schools in team and individual championships? If you are thinking the answer to that question is Stanford, you would be correct. Stanford has won 131 team national championships, the most of any program in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III. They also rank #2 in individual national championships with 539. The only program that has more is Kenyon College at the Division III level. So among Division I programs, Stanford has won more team and individual national championships than any other program.
On top of having more national championships than any other program in the Pac-12, Stanford is also the top academic school in the conference while also having the largest endowment ($37.8B). And they don’t just have the largest endowment. They have the largest endowment in the Pac-12 by miles and miles. The number two school on that list is USC ($8.12B) followed by Cal ($6.8B) and UCLA ($3.89B).
In addition to being the top academic school while also having the largest endowment, Stanford is the only school in the conference that is a part of the Ivy Plus network, which is a collection of schools that the Ivy League has chosen worthy of their affiliation. This means they are in the same network as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, and Cornell.
When you add all those things up: The national titles, Ivy League affiliation, and endowment, it becomes clear that Stanford might actually be the most important program in the Pac-12. Not UCLA or USC.
But, there's one thing some of you are wondering: What about Pac-12 football championships? If you look at who has the most in that category, Oregon (4) has the most followed by Stanford (3), Washington (2), and then Utah/USC (1 each). If you add that into the equation, it’s clear that Stanford takes the cake for most important program in the Pac-12. The only thing they don’t have going for them is living in the Los Angeles TV market. But given how successful they’ve been, I’m not sure they should care. Especially since Palo Alto is a pretty nice place to be in its own right.
All of this is to say that while UCLA and USC leaving the Pac-12 is a major blow to the conference, there’s one school whose departure would actually be an even bigger blow to the conference and that school is Stanford. If Stanford were to leave the Pac-12, that would be the end of the conference. The conference would have no comeback for that. So long as Stanford stays, the conference still has a pulse. Especially if the remaining ten members stay together while also expanding in some form.
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