Potential Pac-12 targets we'd hate to see leave the Big 12

Colorado

Of all the possible splashy additions the Pac-12 could possibly make among the schools further out west geographically from the Big 12 conference, the Colorado Buffaloes and head coach Deion Sanders would be the most polarizing choice.

Colorado just recently joined the Big 12, along with three other schools that left the Pac-12, last year. The Buffs are currently in the first season as a member school in the Big 12 this fall for 2024.

While the results on the field and in the win column haven't shown up consistently yet for Sanders and the Buffs in the last couple of years, the brand recognition and TV market is definitely there for Colorado. Sanders and the Buffs have recruited big-time talents with NFL futures, like Travis Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders, to Boulder in the 2020s.

The Pac-12 could try to take the angle of geographic ties and rejuvenating potential in-state rivalries with Colorado State to try and lure Colorado to have a conversation with the conference's leadership in the near future.

It would make a lot of sense for the Pac-12 to try and find a path back to relevance among the power conferences in college sports by adding former member schools that just left, like the Stanford Cardinal and Cal Golden Bears in the ACC from the Bay Area.

In a world where the Pac-12 can actually get Cal and Stanford back in the fold from the ACC in the near future, targeting other schools that left like Colorado would be a logical next move.

Given how crazy conference realignment has been in the past half-decade, it wouldn't surprise me all that much to see a school like Colorado go back to the Pac-12.