As recently as March, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan was absolutely adamant that his Utes would not be leaving the Pac-12. A lot has happened, not only over the last five months, but the past 24 hours.
On Friday evening, Utah, along with Arizona and Arizona State, officially announced that it will depart the Pac-12 for the Big 12 in 2024. The three schools will join along with Colorado, which made the same announcement earlier this summer. The latest move on the conference realignment chessboard came just hours after Oregon and Washington elected to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten.
Obviously circumstances changed for Utah and the rest of the Pac-12 deserters significantly, both after UCLA and USC announced their move to the Big Ten last year, and against with the Ducks and Huskies’ departure Friday. Even so, Harlan may want back some very pointed posts on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, after they resurfaced on Friday.
