Paul Finebaum ready to 'administer the Pac-12's last rites' after Colorado's move to Big 12

Colorado is officially moving from the Pac-12 to the Big 12. That leaves the conference with just nine teams moving forward while it tries to negotiate a new media deal. With that, college analyst Paul Finebaum has seen enough and is predicting the demise of the Pac-12.

During an appearance on Get Up, Finebaum went so far as to say the Pac-12 needed last rites administered.

“You may as well administer the Pac-12’s last rites,” Paul Finebaum said. “I mean, it’s over. And I’m not talking about this year. I’m talking about next year when they lose USC, when Deion [Sanders and Colorado] go to the Big 12. There’s really nothing left.”

Finebaum explained that just because the conference may continue to have interesting teams, it doesn’t mean that the conference is going to be relevant on the national stage. On top of that, more teams could potentially leave in the future.

“And you could argue ‘Oh, there’s quality games,’ but this league no longer has any relevance on the national stage without USC and losing Colorado. And by the way, they may lose more. They can continue playing football, good for them, but they will no longer be a Power 5 conference, in my opinion.”

One of the biggest storylines to follow with the Pac-12 is its continued media deal negotiations and how Colorado leaving is going to impact that potential deal.

According to a report by John Canzano, Pac-12 leadership met to discuss the conference’s media deal and the idea of “trading up” in the wake of Colorado’s departure. In other words, they’d want to expand again and add more schools, potentially.

Desmond Howard predicted the end of the Pac-12

As Colorado was in the process of moving out of the Pac-12, college football analyst Desmond Howard agreed with Paul Finebaum and predicted a morbid future for the conference as a whole.

“They’re going to have to pull off something pretty incredible that no one sees coming if they’re going to stay in existence, because it seems like it’s going to be the SEC, the Big Ten, and it’s going to be a third conference. A lot of people said it’s going to be a two-conference system. I don’t believe that at all. It’s just too much, too many college football teams to just be two conferences. It’s going to have to at least be three. It just may be the Big 12,” Howard said.

“So I don’t know what’s going to happen to the Pac-12. People are coming in there and just poaching their teams, poaching their programs, and they might cease to exist, about ten years from now.”